Author: Nalchajian Markos

Azerbaijan alarmed by Russian plans to rebase tanks

BAKU, May 23 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan on Monday voiced alarm over the
prospect of Russia moving some of its tanks currently based in Georgia
to Baku’s Caucasus neighbour and arch-foe Armenia.

Azerbaijan is suspicious of Russia’s military cooperation with
Armenia, which Baku accuses of being behind separatists who seized the
mainly Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in a conflict in
the 1990s that left thousands of people dead.

Russia’s armed forces chief of staff General Yuri Baluyevsky said last
week Moscow might have to move armour from its two military bases in
Georgia to Armenia to meet a withdrawal deadline still to be agreed in
talks with Tbilisi.

“Such developments will not serve the interests of peace and security
in the region and will create tensions … in the process of solving
the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the Azeri Foreign
Ministry said in a note to Moscow.

Georgia’s pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili wants Russia to
close two ex-Soviet military bases it controls in his Caucasus
republic, describing their presence as “occupation”.

Moscow says it needs several years to prepare infrastructure for the
troops and armour in Russia and to accumulate cash for the costly
operation.

A fresh round of talks on a withdrawal timetable started on Monday in
Tbilisi with Georgian officials saying their deadline for the pullout
to be completed was the end of 2008.

Baluyevsky said on Friday Russia can prepare a new base for the
withdrawn troops in four years, which appeared to be Moscow’s latest
deadline, but not for armour.

“That is why part of the armour and equipment may be moved to
Armenia,” he said.

Russian deliveries of armour to Armenia during the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict badly hit Moscow’s relations with Baku, which has said that
much of those weapons ended up in the hands of Karabakh separatists.

05/23/05 14:38 ET

RESURRECTION
By J.L. Barnett

The Jerusalem Report
May 30, 2005

Cristos Annesti! Cristos Annesti! Cristos Annesti! A congregation of
thousands shouts out these dramatic words over and over. Christ Is
Risen! Christ Is Risen! Christ Is Risen!

Tears of both joy and mourning stream down the pilgrims’ faces. A
multitude of bells, high-pitched, deep, fast and slow, compete to be
heard, and the choirs of the Armenians, Syrians, Greeks and Russians
each vie, with different incantations, for the ears of the pilgrims.
Monks in gloriously colored robes dart from corner to corner of the
cavernous Church of the Holy Sepulcher to galvanize their respective
flocks.

It is rare to see the adherents of the highly fragmented, ritualized
and hierarchical Orthodox Christian sects of the Holy City in a
state of ecstasy and, as I precariously balance myself 50 meters up,
on a narrow, low-railed balcony within the great rotunda, a feeling
of exhilaration sweeps through me as well. It is 12:50 a.m. on Easter
Sunday, the climax of eight days of commemorations among the Orthodox
Christian communities of Jerusalem.

The Orthodox churches had their origin with the Council of Nicea,
in 325 C.E. when the Roman Catholic Church came to a tumultuous
split with the Eastern churches over the precise nature of Christ’s
divinity. In the centuries that followed, the Orthodox churches tended
to develop along national lines.

In Orthodox churches around the world, the calculation for when
Easter falls is based on the unamended Julian calendar, as opposed
to the corrected Gregorian calendar favored by almost all other
churches. This year, Orthodox Easter Sunday fell on May 1.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Holy Week started with Lazarus
Saturday, commemorating what is considered the ultimate and most
striking of Jesus’ miracles, the raising of Lazarus. It then carried
through to Palm Sunday, the anniversary of the triumphal processional
arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem. The countdown to Good Friday, the
day of the Crucifixion, is marked by the washing of the patriarchs’
feet in the Parvis Square on Maundy Thursday, a powerfully visual
reminder of Jesus’ gesture of humility, when he washed the feet of his
apostles. Easter Saturday, the most dramatic of all the days of Holy
Week, is when the Resurrection is believed to have taken place. By
the following morning, the tomb of Jesus was empty.

In the Orthodox Christian world, it is Easter, not Christmas, that
is the focal point of believers’ faith and the climax of the year.
Whereas the Roman Church and the Protestants, in their holidays
and readings, concentrate on the deeds and words of Jesus, for the
Orthodox, it is as if Jesus came alive only during the 40 days between
resurrection and ascension.

It has become my annual custom to retire to the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher to embed myself among the throngs and observe all that
goes on during these last four days of Holy Week. I take with me food
supplies, a small portable cooker, toiletries and, most important, a
stamina that will allow me to remain continuously awake for 96 hours,
throughout all of which there are wonderful things to be experienced.

I typically spend these days at various monks’ residences within
the church. (When they go to sleep, I move on, so as not to waste
time sleeping.) Around 150 monks actually live in the church, and,
in addition to performing all manner of practical church duties –
both spiritual and temporal – they act as a symbolic presence staking
out a representative claim to their respective sects or communities
in this, the most venerated of Christendom’s churches.

For years, one of my favored monk’s haunts was that of Skiatre,
a Syrian Orthodox priest originally from Lebanon’s Beka Valley. He
was a school chum of Walid Jumblatt, the famed Druse leader. The
multilingual Skiatre had all the trappings of a man of God: the
robes, the long beard and withered bony fingers, an air of dignity
and gravitas and the bearing of a wise and calm inner self.

The surprise came when one entered his abode, a small hut located
high up on a balcony, where one found shelves, from floor to ceiling,
stacked with about 900 videos, recordings of films that Skiatre would
watch on his flat-screen TV. But on Easter the man was transformed,
becoming not just the picture, but the reality of holiness. He was
focused and concentrated in his devotions, he exhibited remarkable
powers of stamina and dedication to his duties and he was very
obviously uplifted to a dramatic degree by the power of Holy Week.

Two years ago, Skiatre was recalled to his mother monastery in Lebanon,
where he now devotes his life to the painting of icons and illuminated
manuscripts.

The cacophony of midnight on Saturday night comes at the tail end
of a tumultuous day. This day starts, as is the custom in the Middle
East, the evening before. Already on Friday afternoon, thousands of
pilgrims from around the world pour in to the church, in order to
secure their place for the most dramatic of Jerusalem’s Christian
events – the annual “Miracle of the Holy Fire.”

Packing every one of the church’s 27 chapels, the crowd works itself
up throughout Friday night and Saturday morning – with singing,
meditation, public and private reading of Scripture, the rawest of
fervor, weeping and sometimes even flagellation.

The staging for the Miracle is perfect – dramatic delays, the
darkening of the interior of the entire church, excited pilgrims and
clergy screaming and even fainting. And then, the last lights are
extinguished, at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Darkness and silence.

At just after 1, an invisible fire is said to descend from the heavens,
and violently hit the 42 permanently burning olive-oil lamps suspended
directly above the marble stone marking the tomb of Jesus. The flame
enters the Edicule, the darkened and crumbling burial chamber of
Jesus beneath the center of the church’s dome.

Within the Edicule are assembled the Orthodox patriarchs of the city,
and it is the unlit torches they hold that are then “miraculously”
lit by the heavenly and now visible flame, and only they are witnesses
to the way it happens. Crucially, however, it is the torch of the
Greek patriarch, in this case Irenaeus I, that for a millennium has
been struck first by the light. He then passes the miraculous flame
to the other assembled clergy. This event is taken as a testament to
the resurrection of Christ that the faithful believe took place on
this exact spot 1972 years ago.

Suddenly, the elderly Irenaeus bounds out of the eastern door of
the Edicule, brandishing high above his head two massive flaming
torches – proof to the multitudes of the miracle that has occurred
seconds before. He leaps upon the shoulders of two waiting bishops,
who proceed to carry him straight into the chaotic melee of the
waiting crowds, where he is swallowed from view. The crowd goes wild,
and surges toward the Edicule.

Within seconds, thousands of torches – some of them candles, others
oil- or paraffin-soaked rags tied to crude sticks – are ignited,
as one person’s torch touches another’s, and the fire seems to leap
all over the vast building. It is an undoubtedly dangerous moment,
and on many occasions there have been injuries and even deaths from
this wild scene.

People are hanging off of pillars and precariously balanced atop
or on the sides of structures all over the church – scaffolding,
balconies and even sections of the natural bedrock that pokes high
above the ground level of the building, and which is said to be
a part of the original Golgotha, upon which Jesus was crucified.
Children leap or scamper from the shoulders of one adult to another,
the crowds cry and shout and weep, begging for the holy fire to be
passed to them. I spot a group of three Klysts, a mysterious and
heretical excommunicated order of Russian monks, uncontrollably
screaming out in celebration of the miracle that has just occurred.

I am witnessing religion at its wildest, at its most untamed. A church,
which is normally so totally controlled by ritual and tradition,
seems for these few moments to be taken back by the people.

This ritual is of great antiquity. Does it echo and therefore rival
the holy fire that burned in Solomon’s Temple? Is it a Christian
adaptation of Zoroastrianism’s holy fire? These issues are still
debated by anthropologists and religious historians, but its first
reliably written description came from the pilgrim Bernard the Wise
in 867, and the essentials of the ceremony have remained unchanged
since Byzantine times.

Within minutes of the miracle, torches lit, directly or indirectly,
from the original are being dispatched all over the world – to
nearby Bethlehem, to Mount Athos in Greece, to Rome, Sao Paolo, St.
Petersburg, to Axum in Ethiopia and to Constantinople, all of them
treasured and guarded in tiny lanterns as they make their flights or
land journeys to their destinations. Upon arrival, the light will
be welcomed with honor and joyful processions, and taken into the
sanctuaries of designated churches. These sanctuaries themselves
then become the focus for thousands more of the faithful, and thus
the fervor of the Holy Sepulcher is transported to all corners of
the world.

The events of this most recent Easter had the added drama of coming
in the midst of tumultuous events within the fishbowl politics
of Jerusalem. Last year, the combative Greek patriarch Irenaeus
broke part of the delicate status quo that governs relations between
the seven big players with a presence in the church – the Greeks,
Armenians, Russians, Latins, Syrians, Copts and Ethiopians – by not
allowing the Armenian patriarch in to part of the holy fire ceremony,
setting a dangerous precedent that the Armenians were determined to
reverse this year.

They succeeded, but only partially: The Armenian patriarch reclaimed
his access to the Edicule, but arguments persist as to how he was
treated behind the closed doors of the ceremony.

To compound the situation, alleged secret property sales from the vast
holdings of the Greek Church in the Holy Land to Jewish groups have
infuriated many local Palestinian members of the Church, who accuse
it of betraying the holy trust that it has as custodian of ancient
properties. Efforts are underway within the Church to have Irenaeus
removed as patriarch, and there have been threats on his life. And
on this tense Easter Saturday, he was heavily protected by bodyguards.

It struck me, as I wandered around the church, that despite all the
pomp and ceremony, it is the common pilgrims who make this day such
a powerful event. As dawn approached, I came across one pilgrim who
to me seemed to represent, perhaps even more than the high church
officials, the spiritual and physical passion of the day. She bore
the stigmata, wounds that develop on the body of certain persons that
correspond to some or all of the wounds of Christ. Skeptics say they
are self-inflicted, others that they are induced by auto-suggestion,
but believers see them as a genuine miracle.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, I came across a crowd of
pilgrims quietly but busily tending to the woman, who was sitting
on the church’s cracked and ancient floor. She was slumped against a
6th-century Byzantine pillar as drops of blood fell from her forehead,
and her blue cotton shoes were also soaked from a profuse bleeding
from the uppers of her feet. As pilgrims filed past her, they gently
touched her wounds and muttered incantations – to have physical contact
with a stigmata-bearer is, for a believer, a rare honor. For the most
part, she seemed in another world, barely noticing what was going on
around her.

And so, another Easter has passed. The violence of the Passion, the
ceremonial dignity of Holy Week, the ecstasy of the pilgrims, have all
re-confirmed Jerusalem’s status as the city of fervor par excellence.

My mind goes back to the inscription upon a Crusader tomb back in rural
England. The tomb can be found in the Templar crypt under a tiny church
in the village of Whitchurch Canonicorum, in the county of Dorset.

“He who has not seen the Holy Fire of Jerusalem has not lived.

Blest are those who bless Jerusalem.”

RUSSIA MAY WITHDRAW ITS BASES FROM BATUMI AND AKHALKALAKI IN 2008

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
May 20, 2005, Friday

Russian Foreign Ministry forwarded to Tbilisi new proposals concerning
the bases, last Friday. Sources in the parliament of Georgia claim that
Russia suggests the withdrawal from Akhalkalaki and Batumi within 3.5
years now, not 4 as before. Should the process be initiated this year,
it will be over in late 2008 at best. Until now, Tbilisi agreed to put
up with the Russian military until January 1, 2008. 2008 is the year
of parliamentary elections in Georgia. The authorities of Georgia
want to be able to tell their voters that there are no more bases
or at least there will be no more bases soon now. And that Moscow’s
clout is diminishing.

Vladimir Kuparadze, Second-in-Command of the Russian Army Group in
the Caucasus, said, “3.5 years are the minimum for the withdrawal
of personnel and military hardware. With luck, of course. Echelons
taking out ordnance are not supposed to include more than 8 boxcars,
and there are lots of ordnance in Batumi and Akhalkalaki. And so on…”

The base in Akhalkalaki is the first to be disbanded (all equipment
will be ferried by big landing ships), the one in Batumi the second.
Georgia believes that it will be easier for Russia to withdraw some
armed vehicles from Akhalkalaki to Armenia. The list of the military
hardware to be withdrawn includes 277 articles, 72 of them tanks and
140 artillery pieces.

Source: Vremya Novostei, May 17, 2005, p. 2

Translated by A. Ignatkin

NEW BOOK ON NAGORNO KARABAKH PUBLISHED IN UNITED STATES
[May 20, 2005, 22:32:22]

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
May 20 2005

A book titled “The Forgotten Genocide” has been released in New York,
USA. The author of the book presentation of which will take place in
the near future, is Felix Tsertsvadze. Living now in America, state of
Florida, the 63 years old author was born in the Shamkir district of
Azerbaijan. The book dwells on the history of the Armenia-Azerbaijan,
Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the policy of the ethnic purge, which
has been carried out by the Armenians on the occupied territories
of Azerbaijan.

Besides, the author addresses with a letter to the US President
George Bush. In the letter to President Bush, Mr. Felix Tsertsvadze,
in particular, has emphasized: “All in the Caucasian region know,
that during events of 1915 in Turkey was lost approximately 200-400
thousand of Armenians. However, since 1967, the Armenian lobby
constantly overestimates the mentioned figure and tries to equalize
it with number of victims of the Holocaust – tragedies of Jews during
the WW II.

The author writes that at the end of XIX century in Turkey there lived
about 1,5 million Armenians. After the acts of terrorism which have
been carried out by the Armenian terrorists in 1895 in Istanbul and
other regions of Turkey, the Armenians living in this country were
captured with fear, and they have started to emigrate in the mass
form to Mesopotamia and Syria. Thus, in 1915, in Turkey, remained
only 800 thousand Armenians. At the end of 1914, the Armenians have
unleashed civil war in the eastern Anatolia, region of Turkey, having
exterminated with support of the Russian armies millions people from
among the Muslim population. In reply, authorities of the Ottoman
Empire have exiled the Armenians from the country.

According to various sources, thus, was lost 200-400 thousand of
Armenians. And under statements of the Armenian lobby, the number
of victims was made 1,5 million people. Thus, lobbyists insidiously
include in this figure the Armenian population which has moved from
Turkey till 1915, the Armenians, who left the country in the 1915,
also the victims who died during the civil war in collisions between
Kurds and Christians and between Kurds and Moslems, and also dying
of natural death.

Mr. Felix Tsertsvadze emphasizes that the changes by politicians,
in own interests, of the number of innocent victims is disrespect
for memory of victims. The Armenian lobby aspires to present to the
international public a new variant of the notorious genocide.

The author considers that it is high time to create under a management
of the USA an international commission with a view of clarifying the
said question. In 1878-1923s, million people – the Europeans, Asians,
and Americans – became victims of wars and acts of genocide. Why,
then, at the international level, should be recognized the genocide
of only Armenians?

Making comments on the role of the USA in the Turkish-Armenian
relations, the member of the Foreign Relations Committee of Senate
Chuck Haggle has told to correspondent of AzerTAj: “These questions
have been existing for many years. When there appeared opportunity to
unite the country, the USA always used it. However, we cannot force
someone to peace. We cannot force people to make something. Armenia,
Turkey, Azerbaijan and the USA have a number of common interests. We
should build our relations on the basis of these interests”.

CRIMEAN SUPREME RADA RECOGNIZED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Pan Armenian News
20.05.2005 08:20

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Crimean Supreme Rada decreed to declare April
24 the Day of Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Victims. The
decision was made at the suggestion of deputy Sergey Shuvaynikov,
the head of the Congress of Russian Communities of Crimea. 59 out 62
deputies present in the sitting hall voted in favor. “Our history
should record such memorable days. I think the Armenian community
will be grateful to us”, Shuvaynikov said when addressing the session,
IA Regnum reports

CONSTITUTIONAL INITIATIVE NEW UNION INTENDS TO TAKE ACTIVE PART IN CONSTITUTION’S REFORMATION

YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The main goal of the Constitutional
Initiative union of NGOs is to take an active part in the process
of reformation of RA Constitution. This was announced at the May
18 press conference of the new union. The union including 6 NGOs –
the Choice is Yours organization, Union of RA Judges, Union of RA
Lawyers and others, worked out a package of proposals with joint
efforts, which was submitted to MPs and a number of interested
organizations. Haroutiun Hambartsumian, Director of the Choice is
Yours organization, mentioned that the main goal of the union is to
submit a number of fundamental proposals concerning the draft of
constitutional reforms approved at RA NA in the first reading and
to assist to their inclusion in the text of the draft amendments
submitted for approval in the second reading. Khachik Voskanian,
Deputy Director of the organization, expressed anxiety in connection
with the fact that the draft, in particular, the thesis regarding
rallies, contains no word about processions and it is only mentioned
that people may conduct rallies. Haroutiun Hambartsumian reported
that the union plans to hold a number of discussions of experts,
to hold consultations with RA NA groups and factions, etc. before
conducting a referendum on the constitutional reform. It was mentioned
that the union suggests all NGOs, citizens and political forces taking
an active part in discussions concerning the constitutional reform
and submitting their proposals.

“Aztag” Daily Newspaper
P.O. Box 80860, Bourj Hammoud,
Beirut, Lebanon
Fax: +961 1 258529
Phone: +961 1 260115, +961 1 241274
Email: [email protected]

First Conference on the Armenian Issue Organized in Istanbul, Turkey

>>From the 25th to the 27th of May, Istanbul will be the host of
a conference dedicated to the Armenian genocide. However, unlike
most conferences dedicated to the “Armenian issue”, this conference,
entitled “Ottoman Armenians during the Decline of the Empire: Issues
of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy”, features scholars whose
views do not echo the denialist rhetoric of the Turkish state.

A number of Turkish scholars, mostly from outside Turkey, have been
quite vocal on the issue of making their country face its past. The
fact that three private universities in Turkey and a large number of
scholars living in the country are involved in this conference is yet
another indication, that the wall of silence is gradually crumbling.

Below is the English translation of the press release and conference
program provided to us by professor Muge Gocek, Associate Professor
of Sociology and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan and
a member of the Consulting Committee of the conference.

——————————————————–

During 25-27 May 2005, there will be a conference organized at Bogazici
University. The hosts of the conference are the Comparative Literature
Department of Bilgi University, the History Department of Bogazici
University and the History Program at Sabanci University. The title of
the conference is “Ottoman Armenians during the Decline of the Empire:
Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy.”

Only Turkish scholars will participate in this conference which is
not international in character. As a consequence, the working language
of the conference will be entirely in Turkish. Only an invited group
of people will be able to attend the conference because of limited
space and the vast interest expressed in the proceedings.

The Organizing Committee of faculty members from the three
participating universities are, in alphabetic order, Murat Belge
(chair, Comparative Literature Department, Bilgi), Halil Berktay
(coordinator, History Program, Sabanci), Selim Deringil (chair,
History Department, Bogazici), Edhem Eldem (History Department,
Bogazici), Hakan Erdem (History Program, Sabanci), Çaglar Keyder
(Sociology Department, Bogazici), Cemil Kocak (History Program,
Sabanci), and Aksin Somel (History Program, Sabanci).

In addition, the Consulting Committee of academics from Turkey and
abroad comprises, in alphabetical order, of Fikret Adanir (Bochum
Ruhr University, Germany), Engin Akarli (Brown University, USA),
Taner Akcam (University of Minnesota, USA), Ayhan Aktar (Marmara
University, Turkey), Seyla Benhabib (Yale University, USA), Ustun
Erguder (Director of Istanbul Policy Center at Sabanci University,
Turkey), Fatma Muge Gocek (University of Michigan, USA), Nilufer Gole
(Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France), Cemal Kafadar
(Harvard University, USA), Metin Kunt (Sabanci University, Turkey),
Serif Mardin (Sabanci University), Oktay Ozel (Bilkent University,
Turkey), Ilhan Tekeli (Middle East Technical University, Turkey),
Mete Tuncay (Bilgi University, Turkey), Stefan Yerasimos (Universite
Paris VIII, France). The schedule of the conference already contains
more than thirty papers to be delivered at ten sessions, a number of
panels and a round table discussion. The organizers of the conference
regretfully note that they have been unable to include many valuable
suggestions that would have made the schedule much richer because of
the large number of interested participants and the need to contain
all the proceedings in three days.

According to the conference organizers, it is time today, ninety
years after 1915, this tragic event in the history of our country,
for Turkey’s own academics and intellectuals to collectively raise
their voices that differ from that of the official [state] theses
and put forth their own contributions. Turkish society that has
grown, differentiated within itself, and opened to the world has
accumulated both qualitatively and quantitatively an impressive amount
of independent and critical thought. This accumulation already
covers a rather large spectrum, achieves breadth and depth along
the intellectual circles of historians, social scientists, writers,
publishers, lawyers, journalists and independent intellectuals,
and now wants to make its own voice heard and thus come of age as
an intellectual generation with its own free and autonomous ideas.
The conference organizers express the common denominator of this new
formation to be the recognition of a responsibility of conscience.
This is not solely a responsibility in reference to scientific truth or
world citizenship, but also a responsibility toward our own country,
society and democracy. It is once again Turkey that would benefit
the most from the emergence of different, critical and alternative
voices and the portrayal of multiplicity of ideas contained in
Turkish society.

————————————-

Program

25 May 2005 Wednesday

Session 1. 09:30-10:50 A Collective View of the Issues

Introductory Note by Selim Deringil

Serif Mardin, Session Chair

Halil Berktay “What Does the Official Narrative Comprise?”

Selim Deringil “Archives and the Armenian Question: ‘Grabbing the Document
by the Throat'”

Murat Belge “Armenian Problem from the Viewpoint of Democracy”

Coffee Break 10:50-11:10

Session 2. 11:10-13:00 What the World Knows and Turkey Does Not Know

Mete Tuncay, Session Chair

Osman Koker “Armenian Presence in the Ottoman State before the Deportation”

Fikret Adanir “Massacre, Genocide and the Historical Profession”

Fatma Muge Gocek “The Chicago-Salzburg Process as an Accumulation of
Knowledge”

Nazan Maksudyan “The 1915-1916 Events according to the 20th century and
world historians”

Lunch 13:00-14:00

Session 3. 14:00-15:40 The ‘Old Order’ before 1914: inequalities, pressures,
rebellion and massacres

Hakan Erdem, Session Chair

Aksin Somel “Armenian Schools and the Regime of Abdulhamid (1876-1908)”

Oktay Ozel “Locals, Refugees and non-Muslims: some observations on the
boundaries of social harmony in the Black Sea Region during the late Ottoman
period”

Edhem Eldem “The Istanbul Armenian Incidents of 1895-96”

Meltem Toksoz “Armenians of Adana and the 1909 ‘Disturbance'”

Coffee Break 15:40-16:00

Session 4. 16:00-18:00 The Breaking Point

Halil Berktay, Session Chair

Stefan Yerasimos “Approaching 1915: Armenian Autonomy and the Zeytun and Van
Incidents”

Nesim Seker “The Armenian Question and ‘Demographic Engineering'”

Rober Koptas “The Unionist-Tashnak Negotiations and the 1914 Armenian Reform
from the pens of Krikor Zohrab, Vahan Papazyan and Karekin Pastirmaciyan”

Elif Safak “Zabel Yesayan and the list of ‘marked Armenian intellectuals'”

26 MAY 2005 THURSDAY

Session 5. 09:30-11:10 Deportation and Massacres

Taha Parla, Session Chair

Fuat Dundar “The Settlement Policy of the Union and Progress(1913-1918)”

Taner Akcam “The Intent and Organization of Genocide, with the survivors and
the destroyed, among the leaders of the Union and Progress in light of
Ottoman documents”

Cemil Kocak How Do You Know the Special Secret Organization (Teskilât-i
Mahsusa)?”

Coffee Break 11:10-11:30

Session 6. 11:30-13:00 Tales of Tragedy and Escape

Ferhunde Ozbay, Session Chair

Sarkis Seropyan “Landscapes of conscience from within a Painful History”
Fethiye Cetin “From Heranus to Seher, the tale of a ‘liberation'”
Aykut Kansu “Thinking through the Tales of Those Who Survived the
Deportation”

Lunch 13:00-14:00

Session 7. 14:00-15:40 Witnesses and Memories

Ayse Oncu, Session Chair

Hulya Adak “The Armenian Question in Memoirs”
Ahmet Kuyas “What Do the Unionists Say?”
Cevdet Aykan “The Meaning of Memories and The Responsibility of Politics and
the Times”
Gunduz Vassaf “Armenians and 1915 in the Educational Calendar (Saatli Maarif
Takvimi)”

Coffee Break 15:40-16:00

Session 8. 16:00-17:40 From the Threshold of the First Confession to the
Formation of Taboos

Metin Kunt, session chair

Ayhan Aktar “The Armenian Question in the Ottoman Assembly,
November-December 1918”

Erol Koroglu “Examples of Remembrance and Forgetting in Turkish Literature:
the Different Breaking Points of Taciturnity”

Baskin Oran “The Roots of a Taboo: the Historical-Psychological Suffication
of Turkish Public Opinion on the Armenian Problem”

27 MAY 2005 FRIDAY

Session 9. 09:30-11:10 States of Being an Armenian

Nukhet Sirman, session chair

Hrant Dink “The New Sentences of Armenian Identity in Turkey and the World”
Ferhat Kentel “Societies of Turkey and the Armenian Republic: Boundaries and
Prejudices”
Karin Karakasli “To Be an Armenian in Turkey: community, individual,
citizen”

Ferhat Kentel, Gunay Goksu Ozdogan, Fusun Ustel, Melissa Bilal “An Identity
Trapped In Between the Past and Present: the Experience of Being an Armenian
in Turkey”

Ayse Gul Altinay “Two Books and an Exhibit: The Rediscovery of Turkish
Armenians”

Coffee Break 11:10-11:30

Session 10. 11:30-13:30 Armenian Problem and the Turkish Democracy

Murat Belge, session chair

Ali Bayramoglu “Views and Approaches to the Armenian Question in Turkey”
Etyen Mahcupyan “The Connection of Historical Perception and Mentality as a
Founding Factor of the Turkish National Identity”

Ahmet Insel “The Armenian Question and the Concept of the Enemy Within in
Turkish Politics”

Murat Paker “Turkish Armenian Issue in the Context of a Psychoanalytic
Evaluation of Turkey’s Dominant Political Culture”

Sahin Alpay “What Can Be Done to Reinstitute Turkish-Armenian Friendship?”

Lunch 13:30-14:30

Session 11. 14:30-16:00 The Armenian Problem and the Freedom of the Press

Ismet Berkan, session chair

Round Table: Ahmet Hakan, Oral Calislar, Kursat Bumin, Fehmi Koru
Coffee Break 16:00-16:20

Session 12. 16:20-18:30 Today and the Future

Ustun Erguder, session chair

A Reconciliation Analyst: Esra Cuhadar Gurkaynak
A Politician: Cem Ozdemir
A Diplomat: Ilter Turkmen
A Lawyer: Turgut Tarhanli
A Historian: Mete Tuncay

–Boundary_(ID_uTeB8pBPSJULQJar43Yy2Q)–

KARABAKH PROBLEM REFERS TO ARMENIA-US RELATIONS?

Pan Armenian News
18.05.2005 04:58

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans expressed
opinion that the Karabakh conflict settlement does not refer to
the sphere of the Armenian-American relations. Due to this reason
he refrained from commenting on the issues referring partly to the
OSCE Minsk Group activities. As for the development of democracy the
diplomat stated that the US fully supports the democratic processes
in Armenia. However it remains unclear why a representative of such
a democratic country as the US did not wish to answer the questions
of the utmost importance for the whole South Caucasus as well as
presenting strategic interest for official Washington.

URGENT ACTION

Turkey: Freedom of expression/torture/prisoners of conscience

n&of=ENG-TUR

PUBLIC AI Index: EUR
44/016/2005
13 May 2005

UA 121/05 Freedom of expression/torture/prisoners of
conscience

TURKEY Writers, journalists, human rights defenders

A new version of the Turkish Penal Code (TPC) currently before the
Turkish parliament for approval may be used to unnecessarily restrict
the right to freedom of expression and could result in people being
jailed as prisoners of conscience. It also leaves open the possibility
of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation within the law,
and retains obstacles to prosecutions for torture.

The new TPC has been presented as a reforming measure designed to
improve human rights protection in Turkey, as it attempts to bring its
laws into line with the requirements for membership of the European
Union. While the new TPC does propose many positive changes – for
example, it increases the punishment for those convicted of torture –
it contains numerous restrictions on fundamental rights. Provisions
covering freedom of expression, which have been used in the past
to prosecute people or imprison them as prisoners of conscience,
remain. Article 159 of the old TPC, which criminalized acts that
“insult or belittle” various state institutions, is one that Amnesty
International has repeatedly called on the authorities to abolish. It
reappears as Article 301 of the new TPC in the section entitled
“Crimes against symbols of the state’s sovereignty and the honour of
its organs” (Articles 299 – 301). Amnesty International is concerned
that this section could be used to criminalize legitimate expression
of dissent and opinion.

New articles have been introduced which appear to introduce
restrictions to fundamental rights. Article 305 of the new TPC
criminalizes “acts against the fundamental national interest”. The
explanation attached to the draft, when the law was first presented to
Parliament, provided as examples of such crimes, “making propaganda for
the withdrawal of Turkish soldiers from Cyprus or for the acceptance
of a settlement in this issue detrimental to Turkey… or, contrary
to historical truths, that the Armenians suffered a genocide after the
First World War.” Amnesty International considers that the imposition
of a criminal penalty for any such statements – unless intended or
likely to incite violence – would be a clear breach of international
standards safeguarding freedom of expression.

The law was supposed to enter into force on 1 April 2005. However,
in the face of forceful objections by Turkish journalists that the TPC
could be used to greatly restrict their activities and even imprison
them, the government agreed to delay this until 1 June 2005 in order
to make amendments. On 3 May, the ruling Justice and Development
[AK] party submitted its proposed changes to the draft TPC. While
some small changes have been made – mainly the removal of provisions
that allowed for increased sentences when breaches of the code took
place in the media – most of the restrictive articles remain and
have not been changed. In at least one instance, the ruling party is
apparently trying to introduce even greater restrictions: for example,
the proposal suggests that Article 305 should be altered to explicitly
allow for the prosecution of “foreigners” as well as Turkish citizens

Article 122 of the draft, which forbids discrimination on the basis
of “language, race, colour, gender, political thought, philosophical
belief, religion, denomination and other reasons” originally listed
“sexual orientation”, but this was removed from the draft at the
last moment. Amnesty International is therefore concerned that
discrimination on the basis of sexuality is not criminalized in the
new law.

In addition, Amnesty International is concerned that the statute
of limitations (the time limit) still applies in trials of people
accused of torture. While the new law has extended this time limit
from seven-and-a-half years to 10 years, it is common for trials
of alleged torturers to be deliberately protracted and ultimately
abandoned because of this provision, thereby contributing to a
climate of impunity. Given the frequency with which this happens,
Amnesty International considers that there should be no statute of
limitations for the crime of torture.

AI Index: EUR 44/016/2005 13 May 2005

Pan Armenian News

RA PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE IN BSECO HANDED CREDENTIALS TO ORGANIZATION
SECRETARY GENERAL

13.05.2005 07:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yesterday Armenia’s Permanent Representative in the
Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Karen Mirzoian handed his
credentials to the BCESO Secretary General Tedo Japaridze. After the
ceremony the parties exchanged opinions on the principal orientations of the
BSECO activities and the programs to be implemented in future. The
interlocutors marked the importance of Armenia’s participation in these
programs.