Author: Navasardian Karapet

The Iraqi Armenians in the post-war era

Azad-Hye, United Arab Emirates
Feb 17 2005

We received the following article written by Ara S. Ashjian of Baghdad,
Iraq and would like to share the information with our readers:

Due to the war on Iraq in March-April 2003, the Armenian community in
Iraq, fortunately, had little casualties. Few Armenians lost their
lives during military operations, and a number of houses belonging
to Armenians were damaged.

In the aftermath of the war, the Armenian Club and the priest residence
at the northern city of Kirkuk, and the Armenian Club at the southern
city of Basra had been looted by the mob.

Armenians worldwide took role in aiding their brothers and sisters in
Iraq. For instance, a relief committee was established in California,
USA, which donated monetary assistance to aid Armenian families who
were facing distressing circumstances due to the war and to rebuild
damaged residences.

The Catholicos of All Armenians H.H. Karekin II issued an appeal to all
Armenian dioceses worldwide to aid Iraqi Armenians. Consequently, the
Community received from the Holy See of Echmiadzin all the donations
of the Armenian churches worldwide. Donations were also made by the
Karaghozian and other Armenian Relief Foundations, and the Armenians
Aid Fund, USA; the Committee to relief the Iraqi Armenians in the UK;
and the Armenian community in Germany.

Efforts to uphold the educational and the religious rights:

The Primate of the diocese H.E. Archbishop Avak Asadourian and the
community officials exerted considerable effort in the post-war
era to uphold the educational and the religious rights of the Iraqi
Armenians, in order that the forthcoming constitution will take into
consideration the Armenians’ as well as other Iraqi minorities’ rights.

The establishment of the Armenian National School of Baghdad was one
of the priorities. The Diocese formed a committee to achieve the aim
of reopening the National School that was nationalized 30 years ago.

The Primate had many contacts with the officials of the former Iraqi
Governing Council and the Ministry of Education to achieve this goal.
As a result of these efforts, and for the first time in the history
of Iraq, the right to teach Armenian along with other languages in
Iraq was stated in the country’s transitional constitution.

8,500 NEW SME REGISTERED LAST YEAR

ArmenPress
Feb 16 2005

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 16, ARMENPRESS: The share of small and medium
enterprises in the last year’s overall GDP rose 1 percent to 39
percent. Rshtuni Martirosian, the head of the National Center for
Development of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, said today the growth
was reported in all sectors. The growth in trade was 1.6 percent,
in industry and construction 2.5 and 4.3 percent respectively.

He said the development of SME should not be hinged on government
support only, as it is contingent also on the improvement of the
population’s economic condition and their higher purchasing capacity.
According to his figures, some 44 percent of construction and 78
percent of trade workers are in small and medium-sized businesses.

He also said last year some 8,500 new small and medium-sized businesses
were registered, creating 18,000 new jobs. Their share in exports
last year stood at 16 percent against 14 last year. He also said
that though there is no official statistics about how many small and
medium-sized enterprise are closed annually, but in his estimation,
one in every ten is closed due to absence of markets for their products
or faulty management.

Time to jump off crashing train

Yerkir/arm
11 Feb 05

The Turkish Daily News published on February 9 an article of the
famous Turkish journalist Mehmed Ali Birand on the Turkish policy on
the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The article is entitled â~@~We have
already missed the train.â~@~]

Birand states that Armenians were successful in proving to the
international community, and especially the West their viewpoint on
the genocide.

â~@~Armenians have been pursuing their goal consistently for 75
years. They have published thousands of books and articles. They have
organized faculties at universities and convinced the international
community. And eventually they reached an international recognition,
despite the fact their information was not sufficient and did not
reflect the reality,â~@~] writes the Turkish journalist.

In this respect, Birand outlines a new way for the Turkish policy. He
calls on the government to set up a new policy chapter, acting in
accordance with todayâ~@~Ys situation and minimizing losses.

As a matter of fact, Turks do not or do not want to understand that
the recognition of the Armenian Genocide took place not so much due
to the work of Armenians, but due that the civilized world denounced
the crime not only to Armenians but to the whole humanity.

And so Turks should think not about missing a train but about jumping
off the deception train.

–Boundary_(ID_i0yYqDf6hyKvfEkM/fhPZw)–

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02/14/2005
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1) Turkish Businessman Sets Sights on ARF
2) Aliyev Unhappy With Karabagh Mediators
3) Car Bomb Kills Lebanon’s Former Prime Minister Hariri
4) Turkey Expresses Concern over Iraq Vote

1) Turkish Businessman Sets Sights on ARF

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–Turkish businessman Kaan Soyak, called on the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF) on Monday to engage in “dialogue” with Turkey.
“I seriously invite them to Turkey for a dialogue. If Dashnaktsutyun [ARF]
agrees to engage in a dialogue with Turkey, I promise you that I will do my
best to organize it,” Kaan Soyak, one of the two co-chairmen of the
Turkish-Armenian Business Council (TABC), told a news conference in Yerevan.
Soyak failed to elaborate about the subject of his proposed talks, saying
only
that they could yield “serious results.” He also said he thinks the ARF is not
as fiercely anti-Turkish as many Turks believe.
“In Turkey, the Dashnaktsutyun [ARF] party has a negative image,” Soyak said.
“But if you ask for my opinion, I would describe the party and its leaders as
very serious and sensible.”

2) Aliyev Unhappy with Karabagh Mediators

(AFP)–The president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, on Monday criticized
mediators
seeking to resolve the conflict with Armenia over Mountainous Karabagh, and
threatened to use force.
“We are unhappy with the work of the Minsk group, which has failed to produce
any results,” Aliyev said in an interview with the Russian daily Nezavisimaya
Gazeta.
The Minsk Group, co-chaired by France, Russia, and the United States, and
operating under a mandate from the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), has been mediating peace talks between the two countries for
the
past decade.
Aliyev once again threatened that Azerbaijan would resort to force. “The
patience of the Azeri people has its limits. We can’t continue to negotiate
for
another 10 years. We will strengthen our army,” he said.
He also said he believed other international organizations could help resolve
the conflict. “That’s why we’ve raised this question in the United Nations and
the Council of Europe despite protests from the Armenians,” he said.
The conflict has cost an estimated 35,000 lives and forced about one million
people on both sides to flee their homes.

3) Car Bomb Kills Lebanon’s Former Prime Minister Hariri

BEIRUT (Reuters/Bloomberg)–A huge car bomb killed Lebanon’s former Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri and at least 12 other people on Monday in Beirut’s most
devastating attack since the 1975-90 civil war.
Hariri’s motorcade was blown up as it passed an exclusive section of the
Corniche, soon after he left a meeting at parliament to discuss elections in
May. Former Economy Minister Basil Fuleihan, riding in the convoy, was
critically wounded.
The explosion outside the St George Hotel gouged a deep crater out of the
road, ripped facades from luxury buildings, and set cars ablaze on streets
carpeted with rubble and broken glass. Officials said at least 100 people were
wounded.
Several of the vehicles from Hariri’s convoy were torn apart and set on fire
despite their armor plating.
“Everything around us collapsed,” a Syrian building worker at the site said.
“It was as if an earthquake hit the area.”
Hariri, a billionaire businessman, had resigned from government in October
but remained politically influential. He recently joined calls by the
opposition for Syrian troops to quit Lebanon in the run-up to the general
election.
“Syria regards this as an act of terrorism, a crime that seeks to destabilize
(Lebanon),” said Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhl-Allah.
He later told Al Jazeera television: “This comes at a time of great
international pressure on Lebanon and Syria which aims to realize Israel’s
desires in the region, and this act cannot be separated from these pressures.”
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called the blast a “horrendous criminal
act.”

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud called an emergency cabinet meeting.
Rescue workers clawed at piles of debris across the street from the hotel.
Witnesses said at least five people had been buried there by the explosion.
The blast could be heard even outside the city limits and shattered
windows in
buildings hundreds of meters away.
Scores of firefighters doused the burning vehicles and bloodied survivors
were
taken away by ambulance. Hariri’s body, with wounds and burns to the face, was
taken to the American University Hospital where sympathizers gathered and
wept.
Prime Minister Omar Karami visited the bomb scene, surrounded by security
men.
Columns of dark acrid smoke rose across a clear blue sky and sea.

Bloody History of Car Bombs

Beirut was regularly rocked by car bombs throughout the civil war, when
fighting among ethnic, religious and political factions all but tore Lebanon
apart.
Neighboring Syria became the ever more dominant player during the conflict,
and its forces took much of the credit for bringing the war to a close.
But Lebanese voices calling for Damascus to pull out its 14,000 troops have
grown louder, backed by a UN Security Council resolution calling for their
withdrawal.
In October a remote-controlled car bomb wounded opposition parliamentarian
Marwan Hamadeh, soon after he resigned as economy minister in protest at the
extension of Syrian-backed President Lahoud’s term.
Mohammad Jihad Ahmed Jibril, a Palestinian military leader, was killed by a
bomb that ripped through his car in Beirut in May 2002. Earlier that year, a
bomb killed Elie Hobeika, a key figure in a massacre of Palestinian
refugees in
1982.
Hariri, 60, had held office for most of the past 12 years before quitting in
October 2004 amid a bitter rift with Lahoud.
The Sunni Muslim Hariri spent some 20 years in Saudi Arabia, where
construction deals made him a fortune that Forbes estimated at $3.8 billion in
2003.
Businessmen praised him for cutting through a paralyzed bureaucracy and
rebuilding war-shattered Beirut. But hopes that economic renaissance would
flower with a Middle East peace process wilted with it instead.
There was no claim of responsibility for the assassination and no obvious
suspect.
“This is the work of an intelligence service, not a small group,” said Rime
Allaf, Middle East analyst at London’s Royal Institute of International
Affairs.
“Whoever did it aimed at creating chaos in Lebanon and pointing the finger at
Syria. I can’t believe anyone in Syria could be naive enough to think that
this
would help them.”
She added: “The Israelis have been thought responsible for a number of
assassinations in Lebanon, but why would they want to stir things up now? The
Syrians must be very worried.”
Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League, said: “I don’t think there will be any
gain from his death…I believe the moment is not a moment of pointing
fingers.”
Israel’s Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres said: “I have no idea who did this.
He lived in a dangerous country and they (the Lebanese government) should have
taken control over that country. Instead of this they surrendered to all kinds
of terrorists.”
French President Jacques Chirac called for an international inquiry into the
car bomb.
“(France) calls for an international inquiry to be held without delay to
determine the circumstances of, and responsibility for, this tragedy, before
punishing the culprits,” Chirac’s office said in a statement.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, speaking to reporters after meeting
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, said the attack had killed “one of the
most important leaders within Lebanon.”
“We should be very determined not to allow those extremists to sabotage the
efforts to bring freedom to the Lebanese in their own country,” Shalom said.
Born in the southern city of Sidon to a poor family, Hariri was a Sunni
Muslim
with seven children, according to his Web site. Hariri, who grew up in
poverty,
moved to Saudi Arabia in 1965 to work as a school teacher, where he made his
fortune by rebuilding palaces for the Saudi royal family. He made a fortune in
construction in the kingdom and owns Saudi Oger Ltd. He and his family are
worth $4.3 billion,
Forbes magazine said last year.
The Lebanese government declared three days of official mourning.

4) Turkey Expresses Concern over Iraq Vote

ANKARA (AP)–Turkey urged Iraqi electoral officials and the United Nations to
examine what it claimed were skewed Iraqi elections results released Sunday,
saying it was particularly concerned about vote tallies in the oil-rich and
ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk.
Turkey has long complained that Kurdish groups were illegally moving Kurds
into Kirkuk, a strategic northern city, in an effort to tip the city’s
population balance in their favor.
Turkish officials did not make direct reference to the Kurds on Sunday, but
the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that voter turnout in some
regions was low and charged that there were “imbalanced results” in several
regions, including Kirkuk.
“It has emerged that certain elements have tried to influence the voting and
have made unfair gains from this,” the statement said, in an apparent
reference
to the Kurds. “As a result the Iraqi Interim Parliament won’t reflect the true
proportions of Iraqi society.”
Ankara fears that Kurdish domination of Kirkuk and oil fields near the city
would make a Kurdish state in northern Iraq viable. Such a state, Turkish
officials warn, could further inspire Turkey’s own rebellious Kurds, who have
been battling the Turkish army in southeastern Turkey since 1984.
Hoshiyar Zebari, a Kurd who is Iraq’s interim foreign minister, said Turkey
had no cause for concern over strong Kurdish showing in Iraq’s elections.
“Definitely all their fears are misplaced,” he told CNN. “Iraq will remain
united. This Kurdish participation in the Iraqi elections and in the regional
election is reaffirmation of their commitment to a national unity of the
country.”
He said Kurds were seeking a democratic and pluralistic within a federal and
united Iraq.
“There is no conspiracy here,” he said. “Turkey should have no fears
whatsoever about the future of Iraq remaining a friendly country to them,
united but respecting the diversity of Iraqi society.”
The Turkish statement called on the election board to seriously consider
objections to the vote and urged the United Nations to take a “more active
role” and ensure that “the flaws, the disorder, and irregularities” of the
poll
were not repeated when Iraqis vote on a new constitution later this year.
Iraq’s majority Shiite Muslims won nearly half the votes in the Jan. 30
election, giving the community significant power but not enough parliamentary
seats to form a government on its own.
Two key Kurdish parties gained just over a quarter of votes cast, giving them
considerable support in the national assembly to preserve Kurdish autonomy in
northern Iraq.
In Kirkuk, Kurds took to the streets to celebrate the results of the
election.
Cars sped through the streets blaring their horns and waving Kurdistan flags
through a city that is fiercely divided between Sunni Muslim Arabs and Kurds.

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“PEACE TO KARABAKH”

Azg/arm
12 Feb 05

Vladimir Kazimirov Surveying Events of 1992-1996 on Pages of Daily Azg

Vladimir Kazimirov, representative of former Russian president on
Nagorno Karabakh, former head of Russian mediatory mission and former
co-chair of OSCE Minsk group, will post a series of publications
on Karabakh conflict at his () and daily
Azg’s websites.

Citing the words of Alexander Tvardovski “Let it be true no matter
how bitter it is”, Kazimirov notes that the “events of not remote
past unfortunately suffer unintentional confusion and deliberate
distortion”.

Six publications by Kazimirov – “Why?”, “Prologue”, “First restrictions
of military operations”, “December fraud of 1993”, “The Bishkek
protocol”, “A break-through to ceasefire”, “What part did Russian
mediation play in reaching ceasefire?” – are already available in
Russian. The English translation of Mr. Kazimirov’s publications will
be available with time.

It should be noted that few views of the Russian diplomat perhaps
contradict views existing in Armenian reality.

By Tatoul Hakobian

BIRAND: WE MISSED THE TRAIN TURKISH JOURNALIST ALARMS AGAIN

Azg/arm
12 Feb 05

On February 9, Turkish Daily News newspaper published a new article
by Mehmet Ali Birandi on the policy Turkey conducts in the issue of
the Armenian Genocideâ~@~Ys recognition. The article is entitled “We
Missed the Train”. The author admits in the article that the Armenians
made success in recognition of the Armenian Genocide especially in
the West. Birand suggests to elaborate a new line in the Turkish
policy. “The Armenians consequently achieved their aim in the course
of the last 75 years. They published thousands of books and articles,
opened departments at Universities and could convince the international
community and achieve the recognition of the Armenian genocide though
they didnâ~@~Yt have sufficient proofs for that and do not reflect
the reality,” he wrote in the article.

Birand calls on opening a new page in the Turkish policy that will
take into account the current situation of increasing danger.

He cited the following statement made by Yusuf Halacogli, president
of Turkish History Foundation: “We canâ~@~Yt overcome this situation
by propaganda, creating documents, books and films.

We should continue our efforts, but we should take steps that will
arouse interest. Together with the historical science we should act
in the policy as well. We should concentrate our strategy.”

Birand stated that Turkey should wake up, elaborate a strategy
and realize that it will achieve nothing if its leaves that to the
historians only.

“It is high time to act at the UN and to open new horizons for
achieving success in the international arena. Wake up!” he appeals.

By Ruzan Poghosian

–Boundary_(ID_LAZVJqMJWJGHQfJZG+xpbQ)–

TURKISH MP CALLS ON TURKEY TO PUT UP WITH ITS PAST

Azg/arm
11 Feb 05

Jem Ozdemir, a German lawmaker with Turkish origin from Germanyâ~@~Ys
Green Party and member of the European Parliament, said in an interview
to Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung that the Armenian taboo of Turkey should
be raised. “Though the Armenian cause was not put before Turkey as
a precondition, the latter is advised to put up with such dark pages
of the history as the massacres of Armenian people”.

It is interesting that Turkish Milliet newspaper responded to
Ozdemirâ~@~Ys words on February 9 in an article titled “Turkey Has
to Put Up With the Past”.

Hakob Chakrian

–Boundary_(ID_PYN5VO4qNRui3yAu9vD7qw)–

AZERI FM TO DISCUSS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WITH HIS TURKISH ASSOCIATE

PanArmenian News
Feb 10 2005

10.02.2005 14:44

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azeri Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar Mamedyarov
is going to discuss the issue of the Armenian Genocide and the
Armenian-Turkish relationships with his Turkish associate Abdullah
Gul. Besides, the parties are scheduled to consider the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict.

PanArmenian News Analysis
Feb 9 2005

US ADMINISTRATION INSISTS ON RENDERING DIRECT ASSISTANCE TO
NAGORNO-KARABAKH

White House proposes to render more support to Armenia than to
Azerbaijan next year

US administration has submitted to Congress the bill of external
financial provisions for 2006. Armenian organizations of America are
satisfied with the contents of the document since firstly it supposes
rendering direct assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh and secondly in
contrast to the last year’s bill it provides equal assistance for
military aims. As it is known the White House formerly considered
that official Baku deserved more support from Washington since Baku
was more actively involved in the international anti-terrorist
coalition.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ This time the United States have proposed to
allocate 5 million dollars to Armenia and Azerbaijan for
implementation of the defense program. It should be mentioned that
last year the White House proposed to provide Yerevan with a sum four
times less than the sum planned for Baku. (Armenia – 2 million
dollars, Azerbaijan – 8 million dollars). However due to the efforts
of Armenian lobbyists and their partners in the House of
Representatives and the Senate the sum was equalized. Both parties
received 8 million and 750 thousand dollars. Things were like this
also two years ago when again thanks to the efforts of congressmen
equality was achieved in the capacities of military support provided
to Armenia and Azerbaijan. The fact that the administration has
finally given up the attempts to break the balance in this issue is
the success of Armenian lobbyists.

However it would not be quite correct to impute the achievement only
to American Armenians who actively lobby the interests of Yerevan.
The issue would hardly be settled so easily without the efforts of
Yerevan. It is reasonable to think that this time the parity would
not be achieved if Armenia did not make the decision to send
peace-makers to Iraq. Last year lobbyists managed to win the
sympathies of Congress thanks to the declared readiness of Yerevan to
activate its role in the international anti-terror coalition. Yerevan
kept the promise. However some correspondents hold that the difficult
step made by Armenia was not estimated at its true worth by
Washington. The sum mentioned in the bill was much less than
supposed. At the end of the last year informal sources mentioned much
more impressive figures.

As for the “regular support” the administration intends to assign 55
million dollars. It is worth mentioning that last year the White
House offered 62 million to Yerevan but the Congress kept the
previous sum – 75 million. It is much easier to bring 62 to 75 than
55 to 75. So it is quite possible that this year we shall have to
submit that the regular support provided by the United States will be
less than before. Nevertheless it should be mentioned that the
figures mentioned in the bill are just proposed by the
administration. Practice shows that lawmakers bravely make
corrections in the texts of the documents submitted by the White
House. The same can be said about documents referring to Armenia.
There are no doubts that this year also the partners of Armenian
lobbyists in the Congress will achieve success in increasing the sum
planned for Armenia and it will be much higher than the sum assigned
to Azerbaijan.

Despite the amendment 907 introduced in 1992 that banned government
aid to Azerbaijan this year Baku will however receive aid from
Washington. The temporary suspension of the amendment initiated by
the president allowed Azerbaijan to receive altogether 90 million
dollars. The US ambassador in Azerbaijan Rino Harnish announced on
Monday that he “dreams of the day when the amendment is fully
canceled”. He assured that both the administration and the Congress
strive for the cancellation of the amendment. It is of course an
exaggeration. The Congress is not going to yield to the
administration in that issue and besides, the existence of the
amendment is quite advantageous for the president himself since it
creates additional mechanisms of impact on Azerbaijan. So there are
no serious grounds to talk about the possibility of ceasing the
sanctions applied against Azerbaijan punished by the United States
for blockading Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Artem Erkanyan

–Boundary_(ID_0gTn8OmI0cN+DnQE1OtXEQ)–

Agence France Presse
5 février 2005 samedi 3:58 PM GMT

Les parlementaires français face à l’incompréhension et l’amertume
des Turcs (PAPIER GENERAL)

Par Sylvie MALIGORNE

ISTANBUL 5 fév 2005

Le président de l’Assemblée nationale Jean-Louis Debré et les
présidents de groupe ont été confrontés en Turquie à
l’incompréhension et à l’amertume des Turcs vis-à-vis des réticences
françaises sur l’adhésion d’Ankara à l’Union européenne.

Venus “sans a priori, ni préjugé”, M. Debré et les présidents de
groupe, Bernard Accoyer (UMP), Jean-Marc Ayrault (PS), Alain Bocquet
(PCF) et Hervé Morin (UDF) ont pu mesurer, pendant trois jours,
d’Ankara à Istanbul, le fossé créé entre les deux pays par le débat
en France.

Tous leurs interlocuteurs, du Premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan
aux parlementaires, en passant par les chefs d’entreprise, les
associations et les universitaires, ont exprimé leur “déception” ou
se sont dit “choqués”.

L’éventualité d’un référendum sur cette adhésion a soulevé le plus de
critiques, dont celle de M. Erdogan, qui, selon un membre de la
délégation, a lancé jeudi: “Je ne savais pas que 400.000 Arméniens
pouvaient faire échouer un référendum”.

Même incompréhension samedi à Istanbul où les responsables de
l’Université francophone de Galatasaray ont vilipendé le traitement
particulier réservé à leur pays alors qu’aucun référendum n’est prévu
pour la Croatie.

M. Ayrault a souligné que les socialistes français étaient opposés à
cette disposition, de même que M. Bocquet, tandis que M. Debré l’a
défendue. Ce dernier a expliqué qu’une telle consultation était
“normale” s’agissant d’un “grand pays de 71 millions d’habitants”, en
rappelant qu’il en avait été ainsi pour la Grande-Bretagne.

“Passerelle”

Le patronat turc (TUSIAD) a manifesté son amertume en s’étonnant “des
peurs et des inquiétudes” des Français qui leur font oublier
“l’essentiel”, à savoir que “la Turquie et l’Union européenne peuvent
créer de la valeur ajoutée”.

Tous les membres de la délégation française se sont employés à
“écouter et comprendre”. M. Accoyer, partisan d’un partenariat
privilégié avec la Turquie, a eu la tche un peu plus dure, face aux
Turcs critiquant la phrase du président de l’UMP Nicolas Sarkozy “si
la Turquie était en Europe, ça se saurait”.

Sans changer d’avis sur le partenariat “car le chemin est encore très
long” avant l’adhésion, M. Accoyer a souligné le “souhait très fort”
de la Turquie d’entrer dans l’UE et estimé que l’on n’avait “pas le
droit d’avoir un préjugé définitif”.

Pour sa part, comme M. Accoyer, M. Morin n’a pas écarté la
possibilité que la Turquie remplisse les critères requis pour
l’adhésion. Pour autant, il a mis l’accent sur le “nationalisme” des
Turcs et douté de leur capacité à accepter “le partage de
souveraineté”.

Favorable à l’entrée de la Turquie, M. Bocquet a estimé que
“l’adhésion stimulait les combats démocratiques”. Pour le responsable
communiste, il faut faire en sorte que ce pays soit “une passerelle”
entre l’Europe et “d’autres continents”.

Au terme de ce déplacement, Jean-Louis Debré s’est montré satisfait
du dialogue “vrai et franc” ainsi noué. Ce ton, voulu par M. Debré, à
mille lieux du langage diplomatique habituel, a parfois étonné. Mais,
a-t-il dit, l’Assemblée n’était “pas venue pour négocier mais pour
s’informer”, ce qui lui autorise une plus grande liberté.

“Je voulais que nous identifions les problèmes, aller droit au but,
et associer l’Assemblée au processus”, a-t-il dit, avant d’ajouter:
“Je ne veux plus revoir un débat à l’Assemblée où certains affirment
sans savoir”.