Author: Nalchajian Markos

Anadolu Agency
Feb 26 2005

Former Turkish F.M. Kirca Laid To Rest In Istanbul
By Anadolu Agency
Published: 2/26/2005
TurkishPress.com

ISTANBUL – Coskun Kirca, the former Turkish foreign minister,
ambassador and writer who died of respiratory and heart failure on
Thursday, was laid to rest in Istanbul on Saturday.

A ceremony took place at the Galatasaray University out of respect to
Kirca, 78.

Speaking at the ceremony, Galatasaray University Rector Prof. Dr.
Duygun Yarsuvat said that Kirca had made important contributions to
democratization of Turkey as a successful politician.

Meanwhile, French Consul General in Istanbul Jean-Christophe
Peaucelle said that Kirca had played a significant role in setting up
educational cooperation between Turkey and France.

Kirca was born in Istanbul in 1927. Graduating from Galatasaray High
School and Istanbul Faculty of Law, Kirca served as the Director of
the International Security Department’s Planning and Assistance
Branch, Turkey’s Permanent Representative to NATO, Turkey’s Permanent
Representative to UN and ambassador to several foreign countries. He
survived an armed attack of three Armenian terrorists with several
injuries on March 12th, 1985 when he was Turkey’s Ambassador in
Ottawa.

Besides politics, he also worked as a journalist and wrote for
magazines as ”Forum, Akis, Kim and Yeni Forum” and newspapers as
”Vatan, Yeni Gun, Yeni Vatan and Yeni Yuzyil.”

Coskun Kirca, who was a founder member of the parliament in 1960, was
elected a parliamentarian both from the Republican People’s Party
(CHP) and True Path Party (DYP). He undertook important duties in
preparation of all constitutions of Turkey adopted since 1961.

After being elected as a deputy from DYP in 1991, Kirca served as
Turkish Foreign Minister of the 51st government formed by then DYP
leader Tansu Ciller.

Kirca was married with three children.

Agence France Presse
24 février 2005 jeudi 5:12 PM GMT

Contestation de crimes contre l’humanité: proposition de loi UMP

PARIS 24 fév 2005

Le député UMP du Vaucluse, Thierry Mariani, a déposé à l’Assemblée
Nationale une proposition de loi visant à sanctionner la contestation
de tous les crimes contre l’humanité, a-t-il annoncé jeudi.

“Il est aujourd’hui possible en France de contester en toute impunité
l’existence du génocide arménien, comme de tous les crimes contre
l’humanité commis en dehors de la Seconde Guerre mondiale”, a indiqué
M. Mariani dans un communiqué.

Expliquant vouloir, grce à cette proposition de loi, “achever le
travail des législateurs français”, M. Mariani indique que si elle
est adoptée, pourront être punis de cinq ans d’emprisonnement et de
45.000 euros d’amende “tous ceux qui auront contesté l’existence d’un
ou plusieurs crimes contre l’humanité reconnus par une loi française
ou commis par une personne reconnue coupable de tels crimes par une
juridiction française ou internationale”.

Zaman, Turkey
Feb 25 2005

‘Turkey must Accept Sevres and Genocide’
By Cihan News Agency, Anadolu News Agency (aa)

French diplomat Jacques Toubon has told the Turkey-European Union
(EU) Joint Parliamentary Commission that Turkey should accept the
Armenian Genocide and the Treaty of Sevres.

Touban said that the European Parliament had made a decision on the
alleged Armenian genocide and that Turkey would have to accept
responsibility for the genocide in order to be accepted into the EU.

Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Sukru Elekdag reacted strongly
to Toubon saying that these claims do not reflect the realities,
which should be discussed by historians not by politicians. Turkey’s
Permanent Representative to the EU, Ambassador Oguz Demiralp, also
opposed Toubons speech about the Treaty. Greek diplomat Marios
Matsakis increased the tension by claiming that Turkey had committed
genocide against Armenians, Greeks and Kurds.

La Croix , France
24 février 2005

Les saints du jour. Saint Vartan (Ier siècle). Saint Modeste.

Saint Vartan (Ier siècle). Envoyé par son cousin, l’empereur romain,
à Sanadrouk, roi d’Arménie, pour régler des affaires importantes.

Il se convertit lors de sa rencontre avec saint Jude et est assassiné
par les fils de Sanadrouk pour s’être fait chrétien.

On fête aussi saint Modeste (fin IXe siècle), évêque de Trêves
(Rhénanie).

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
February 23, 2005, Wednesday

WASHINGTON’S CAUCASUS DILEMMA

SOURCE: NG-Dipkurier, February, 2005, p. 14

by Nikolai Zlobin, Director of Russian and Asian Programs of the
Center of Defense information (Washington)

THE AMERICANS WILL UP PRESSURE ON MOSCOW IN ORDER TO INTERNATIONALIZE
PEACEKEEPING EFFORTS IN THE CAUCASUS

Washington is left under the impression that Russia is not interested
in restoration of territorial integrity of the countries of the
region and only aims to remain a monopolist in the area. Since all
these efforts are invariably futile, Washington becomes skeptical. On
the other hand, there is a question to be answered first: is the
Caucasus worth the trouble of going there? Russia in its turn is
skeptical about international efforts to settle conflicts on the
territory of the former Soviet Union. The attempt to settle the
conflict in Karabakh was international – with nothing to show for it.
This is approximately what Moscow thinks, “The Western friends will
come. It will be no use, in fact, but driving them out again
afterwards will be nearly impossible.”

The following dilemma is what America is facing now. Is it prepared
to challenge Russia and sort out the mess that is the Caucasus
disregarding the Russian-American bilateral relations and the fact
that Russia is its ally in the war on terrorism?

It is clear that from the military point of view Washington is far
from the idea of a march to the Caucasus. Firstly, it still retains
the hope that Moscow will try to solve problems of the region by
political means. Moreover, it should be noted that the Americans have
only primitive notions on what the Caucasus is. The United States
does not understand if the Caucasus is an integral region or not. The
opinion that Armenia is not a country of the Caucasus and therefore
needs a special approach is actively lobbied in America. It follows
that it does not know what exactly it needs there – a regional policy
or individual work with countries.

The Americans understand that going to the Caucasus at this point
will only deteriorate the situation. The United States was taught a
lesson in Iraq. A lot of mistakes made there are ascribed to the fact
that the Americans did not know what to do in the country or how work
with it should be organized. The situation in the Caucasus being what
it is, Washington will probably prefer working side by side with
Russia. All the same, other scenarios are possible as well.

While the situation deteriorates, the Americans will probably put
Moscow under more and more pressure in order to internationalize
peacekeeping efforts. First and foremost, the matter concerns the use
of peacekeepers from CIS countries and NATO armies in the
Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian conflict areas. In fact,
even involvement of the US Army should not be ruled out. It will
become inevitably if an all-out conflict flared up in the Caucasus
and Russia demonstrated its inability to localize it. Or if
Washington became convinced that the region is transforming into an
uncontrolled zone from which strikes at Western countries and their
interests are possible.

Translated by A. Ignatkin

ARMENIA-EU COOPERATION COMMITTEE JOINT SITTING TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN IN 2005

PanArmenian News
Feb 18 2005

18.02.2005 17:57

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The recurrent joint sitting of the Armenia-EU
Cooperation Committee will be held in May-June 2005, head of the
department for economic development of Armenia Garegin Melkonian
stated today. To note, the previous sitting took place in Brussels in
2004. According to Melkonian, the sittings of the Armenian-Ukrainian
and Armenian-Byelorussian Intergovernmental Commissions are scheduled
for late 2005 or early 2006.

Claudie Haigneré invite la Turquie à faire un travail de mémoire

Nouvelles d’Arménie Magazine
16 février 2005

EUROPE, mercredi 16 février 2005 – ARMENEWS- La ministre française
déléguée aux Affaires européennes Claudie Haigneré en visite à
Ankara a invité lundi la Turquie à faire “un travail de mémoire”
sur le génocide arménien. “La construction européenne se fait sur la
paix et sur le bon voisinage. Il y a un travail de mémoire qui est
nécessaire pour tous”, a-t-elle notamment dit lors d’une conférence
de presse avec le ministre turc des Affaires étrangères Abdullah Gul.

–Boundary_(ID_RpUeEBZlM1peXWXpiX6PpA)–

COUNCIL OF CIVIL SERVICE

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
17 Feb 05

On February 14 the press conference of the NKR Council of Civil
Service took place, during which journalists had an opportunity to
get acquainted with the work done in one year and get answers to
their questions. The system of civil service has been long operating
in foreign countries. In our country the Council of Civil Service
was established a year ago and aims to promote the development of
a flexible and healthy cadre system. As any new organization the
Council of Civil Service also faces difficulties. The chairman of
the council B. Arushanian informed that in the beginning all the
work was done by the members of the council only (the reason was
the lack of office and possibility to employ specialists). In answer
to the question if the law favours the effectiveness of work of the
council, B. Arushanian said that there will be need to change some
points in the law in the course of time, but now the activity of
the council is carried out strictly within the framework of the law
in effect. The NKR Council of Civil Service will soon undertake the
first retraining and qualification courses. â~@~This a complicated
process requiring hard work and efforts. We also have questions to
be answered because the system is new in our republic. Anyway, in the
beginning the approach cannot be strict because the specialists are not
ready for it either,â~@~] he said. In reference to cooperation it was
mentioned that the council received methodological and practical aid
from the corresponding body of the Republic of Armenia (the problem
of not being recognized internationally does not allow their foreign
colleagues have direct communication with them) but hopefully the
range of cooperation will become wider year by year.

SRBUHI VANIAN. 17-02-2005

–Boundary_(ID_31t4/Y/PXgm8lM9+l8sQ7g)–

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Feb 14 2005

DEFENSE MINISTER VISITS UAE
[February 14, 2005, 12:15:28]

A delegation of Azerbaijan led by Defense Minister of the country
Colonel General Safar Abiyev visiting United Arab Emirates to
participate the 7th International Defense Exhibition-conference, has
met in Abu Dhabi with UAE Defense Minister Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid
Al Maktum.

Colonel General Safar Abiyev expressed hope for continuation of the
military cooperation between Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates,
and exchanged views with his counterpart on a number of important
issues.

For his part, Defense Minister of UAE Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktum
emphasized that his country has always supported and will do in the
future the fair position of Azerbaijan with respect to the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Azerbaijani delegation’s visit to the United Arab Emirates is
ending February 17.

NEW NGO SET UP TO ASSIST FARMERS

ArmenPress
Feb 10 2005

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 10, ARMENPRESS: A new non-governmental
organization, called The Green Path, has emerged with the help of the
Marketing Assistance program (MAP) of the US Department of
Agriculture Yerevan Office.
The new organization’s stated goal is to help establish companies
and farmers’ union engaged in production of ecologically clean and
competitive products, assist them in marketing and exporting food and
related products to increase incomes, create jobs, and raise the
standard of living for Armenians working in the agro-processing
sector.
Nune Sarukhanian, the chairwoman of the new organization, said it
has 50 skilled experts, sufficient financial resources and
partnership connections in the regions and will soon launch its
activity. She said donations came from several other organizations
and individuals.