Author: Tadevosian Garnik

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
July 25 2005

Turkey’s Possible Cross-Border Operation

Semih Idiz

Source: Milliyet

Columnist Semih Idiz comments on a possible Turkish cross-border
operation in northern Iraq. A summary of his column is as follows:

`The issue of whether or not Turkey will conduct a cross-border
operation against the terrorist PKK’s camps in northern Iraq is being
taken seriously. The US and Britain are following this issue very
closely because these countries are now in Iraq militarily. However,
the European Union is also involved because it’s considered certain
that such an operation would put the Kurdish lobby in Europe in play
as well. Obviously those who are trying to hinder Turkey’s EU
membership will try to benefit from this operation, just like they
used the issue of the so-called Armenian genocide. What’s more, Arabs
are also involved in the issue as well. All the operations carried
out by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in northern Iraq in the past,
which were considered to be based on just cause even by the US, were
condemned by the Arab League. Of course now everybody forgets that
not only Kurds, but also Arabs were against Turkey’s entrance into
Iraq even if under American command following the US invasion of
Iraq. In sum, everybody is discussing the effects of a possible
military operation by Turkey in northern Iraq. It seems nobody is
viewing this positively because nobody thinks that this will be a
simple operation as it was in the past.

Everybody says that if such an operation occurs, it will have serious
repercussions on the regional level and on Turkish-US and Turkish-EU
relations, both of which are very sensitive these days. People also
say that the fact that Turkey will base this operation on Article 51
of the UN Charter on `self-defense’ won’t be able to dispel this
fallout. People also believe that if Turkey enters northern Iraq, it
will face peshmerga and American forces. Meanwhile, these remarks of
a Western diplomat about Turks summarize the general opinion among
foreigners: `Your problem isn’t there, but within yourself. Even if
you carry out 50 cross-border operations, you can’t escape from this
truth.’ Arab diplomats I spoke to agreed with this. At this point, so
many questions could be asked, including: The US and Britain are
invaders in Iraq, so why are they giving lessons to us? However, no
matter how angry they are, military and civilian planners shouldn’t
be emotional, but realistic. Obviously, if Turkey finds it necessary,
it would conduct such an operation. Many people already want one to
counter the increasing PKK attacks. However, if some people think
this will cost nothing and lead to a happy ending, I must say that
they are mistaken.’

Connecticut Post (Bridgeport, CT)
July 19, 2005 Tuesday

Pastor develops book discussion program in Easton

FELICIA HUNTER, Correspondent

EASTON — When several of the Rev. Nayiri Karjian’s parishioners
asked her about claims in a popular novel last summer, she realized
where religious education and personal growth are concerned, fielding
questions can be just as important as providing answers.

The queries centered on Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code,” which posits
a matrimony between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

“It was one book that many parishioners had read,” said Karjian,
pastor of Congregational Church of Easton. “They kept asking, ‘Is it
true? Is it true?’ So I thought it would be really fun to discuss
it.”

That discussion group led to others about other books in meetings
held monthly at Easton Public Library, with Karjian as facilitator.
She and library Director Bernadette Baldino select featured works.

Those talks have attracted many who are not members of the
Congregational church, in addition to parishioners, and have evolved
into a way for the church “to be part of the community and connect
with others,” Karjian said.

“It really has attracted different groups from the community. I’ve
really appreciated members from outside the church.”

Attendance at past discussions has varied from several core members
up to 25 participants.

“It’s excellent,” Baldino said. She said there always is “a lively
discussion and thought-provoking material.”

The next meeting will focus on “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides.
Multiple copies are available at the library.

The books that are chosen are not necessarily overtly religious, but
they do stimulate conversations about spirituality and “life
journeys,” Karjian said.

“They have kind of existential themes,” she said.

Previous books discussed were “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning”
by Chris Hedges, about the attraction and effects of war; and “Rise
the Euphrates” by Carol Edgarian, a novel about a survivor of the
1915 Turkish massacre of Armenians.

The latter hits close to home for Karjian, a daughter of Armenian
natives. Her parents fled the country during the 1915 genocide.
Although Karjian was born in Syria, she is proud of her Armenian
heritage, a fact well known to her congregation. They suggested
reading “Rise the Euphrates” with her in mind.

“People said, ‘Let’s do something for you,’ ” Karjian said.

After growing up in Syria, Karjian attended college in Beirut,
Lebanon. War broke out there, and in 1982 she came to the United
States to continue her studies at Lancaster Theological Seminary in
Lancaster, Pa.

She said because she emigrated from an Arab region, people here
assume she is Muslim. However, she and her family are Christian, in
keeping with their Armenian heritage. In 400 AD, Armenia was the
first country to formally adopt Christianity.

Karjian came to Easton three years ago.

Having experienced different cultures, she said she’s detected common
threads among seemingly disparate populations.

“I think that we human beings, really what we strive for is
wholeness,” Karjian said, adding she has found that group discussions
enhance self-discovery. She said she hopes the book discussions serve
as a form of enlightenment for participants, and invites anyone
interested to join in a talk.

“I hope people will find some insight into their own hearts and
lives, and really find ways as human beings for connections,
commonalties, rather than ways that separate us,” she said.

For more information, call Karjian at 261-2527 or Baldino at
261-0134.

Fresno Bee (California)
July 21, 2005, Thursday FINAL EDITION

Saroyan prize awarded for ’05

“The King of California” by Mark Arax and Rick Wartzman and “The
Laments” by George Hagen were the winners in the 2005 William Saroyan
International Prize for Writing announced Tuesday at Stanford
University in Palo Alto.

“The King of California” won in the nonfiction category and “The
Laments” in the fiction category. The winners will be award a $12,500
prize. There were 125 entries in both categories.

Arax is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times who lives in Fresno;
Wartzman, who lives in Los Angeles, is the paper’s business editor.

“The King of California” is about J.G. Boswell and his cotton
business in the San Joaquin Valley.

Hagen lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and “The Laments” is his first novel.
It is about a family and a kidnapping and how that influences lives.

The writing prize was established to encourage new and emerging
writers and is awarded annually for newly published works in fiction
and nonfiction. The prize is awarded through Stanford University
Libraries in partnership with the William Saroyan Foundation.

It is named after Fresno native William Saroyan, who won the Pulitzer
Prize in 1940 for his play “The Time of Your Life” and an Academy
Award in 1943 for his screenplay “Human Comedy.” Saroyan was the
fourth child of Armenian immigrants. He rose from poverty to literary
prominence in the 1930s with stories such as “The Daring Young Man on
the Flying Trapeze,” “My Name is Aram” and “My Heart’s in the
Highlands.”

Saroyan, who died in 1981, wanted to establish a writing prize to
encourage and perpetuate the art he loved. He set up the William
Saroyan Foundation in 1966. Professors, business executives and
government officials have served on the foundation’s board. In 1990,
the trustees offered Stanford University the assembled Saroyan
Literary Collection with provisions that would safeguard Saroyan’s
work.

Putin, Erdogan to discuss Garabagh conflict

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
July 18 2005

Baku, July 15, AssA-Irada — Russian President Vladimir Putin and
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan will hold an informal
meeting in Sochi, Russia on July 17-18.

The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper Garabagh will be among
the issues to be discussed, Armenian Erkir newspaper reported.*

RA FM AND OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS DISCUSSED PRAGUE PROCESS

Pan ARMENIAN Network, Armenia
July 15 2005

15.07.2005 06:13

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian met today
with Co-Chairs OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia), Steven
Mann (US) and Bernard Fassier (France), RA MFA press center reported.
Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk
was also present at the meeting, which proceeded in a constructive
atmosphere. The interlocutors exchanged views on the issues discussed
within the framework of the Prague Process. The mediators familiarized
Vartan Oskanian with the outcomes of the meetings held in Baku and
Stepanakert. The RA FM presented Armenia’s position on the issues
considered.

BAKU CONSENT TO REFERENDUM IN KARABAKH EQUAL TO HIGH TREASON

Pan ARMENIAN Network, Armenia
July 15 2005

15.07.2005 03:39

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Official Baku should not agree to the conduction of
a referendum in Nagorno Karabakh, as it will lead to the loss of the
Azeri territories”, former advisor to Azerbaijani President, political
scientist Vafa Guluzade stated. In his words, the OSCE Minsk Group
Co-Chairs have assumed anti-Azerbaijani position and their proposal
have remained unchangeable during the recent 10 years. “The OSCE
Minsk Group proposes Azerbaijan to resign to the loss of territories
and make manifest concessions in favor of Armenia. One of them is
the signing of the agreement on conduction of a referendum in Nagorno
Karabakh”, Guluzade noted. He also expressed opinion that the mediators
“simply resorted to cunning” when proposing to hold the referendum
in Karabakh not immediately after the return of the territories but
in some 10 years. “The last census of population in Nagorno Karabakh
held during the soviet period showed that the number of Armenians
exceeded the number of Azeris”, Guluzade reminded. “The referendum
would mean mechanical separation of a part of Azeri territory, what
is inadmissible. Such step is equal to high treason”, he stressed,
Mediamax reports.

THERE ARE STILL HOMELESS PEOPLE IN SHIRAK

A1+
14-07-2005

As reported by our colleagues from Tsayg TV Company the certificate
for purchasing dwelling is issues for a term of four months. During
this period the people are obliged to buy a flat, otherwise they will
have to return under the condition that their names will remain in the
lists.

This year the citizens, who have never participated in such programs
before are included in the lists. 51 families, which received the
certificate last but failed to obtain dwelling are deprived of the
right to receive the certificates this year.

Totally the notification of the certificate was sent to 1600
families. 254 of them have already responded.

ADMITTANCE STARTED

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
14 July 05

Admittance has already begun in NKR and will last till July 15. The
head of the state admittance commission, the rector of Artsakh State
University Hamlet Grigorian said no essential changes have taken place
in the commission, as well as the procedure of admittance to
universities. The numbers have not been changed either. This year
Artsakh State University will admit 796 students in total, there will
be 220 scholarships. In the state universities of Armenia60 places
will be provided for the students from Artsakh. Of these 40 will take
the entrance exams in NKR, the rest in Yerevan. According to the
chairman of the commission, the number of applicants has almost not
changed since last year. This year the number of applicants for
mathematics, physics and chemistry has grown. Judging by the
experience of previous years, there will be a tough contest for
economics, foreign languages, physical training and military training,
as well as the places in the universities of Armenia. On July 16 the
traditional meeting of the applicants and their parents with the
republic admittance commission will take place. The entrance exams
will start on July 20.

SVETLANA KHACHATRIAN.
14-07-2005

Minister says Karabakh’s involvement in talks crucial to settlement process

Azg, Yerevan
14 Jul 05

Excerpt from Tatul Akopyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Azg on 14
July headlined “Arman Melikyan: ‘Controlled territory is a crucial
guarantee to protect Armenian refugees’ rights'”

The OSCE Minsk Group [co-chairmen] visited Stepanakert late in the
evening yesterday [13 July] to continue negotiations on the Karabakh
settlement with the leadership of the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic.

[Passage omitted: details of delayed arrival caused by bad weather]

We recall that people in Stepanakert are much more reserved about a
possible progress in the Karabakh settlement. The Nagornyy Karabakh
foreign minister has said to us that the clue to the Karabakh
settlement should be looked for in direct negotiations between
Stepanakert and Baku. As for controlled territories [seven Azerbaijani
districts around Nagornyy Karabakh occupied by Armenia] and refugees,
only Stepanakert is responsible for that.

“The controlled districts are not just a territory, they are a crucial
guarantee for the protection of Armenian refugees’ rights. If these
districts are returned, then how will the land and material claims of
500,000 Armenian refugees [from Azerbaijan] be settled? Nobody is
dealing with the fate of these people. The negotiations focus only on
400,000 Azerbaijani migrants [as published, actually between
800,000-1m refugees] but there is no word about Armenian refugees. We
should not allow the Armenians of Azerbaijan to repeat the destiny of
the Armenians of Turkey and of the diaspora,” [foreign minister of the
Nagornyy Karabakh Republic, Arman] Melikyan said.

The Nagornyy Karabakh foreign minister thinks that Baku is responsible
for the Azerbaijani migrants and for the Armenian refugees from
Azerbaijan.

“A total of 500,000 Armenians were ousted from their homes and lost
their motherland before the war, while 400,000 Azerbaijanis left their
homes as a result of the war started by their own government,” he
said.

Touching on the high level Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations, in
particular the meetings of the presidents, the Nagornyy Karabakh
foreign minister said they were causing a great deal of interest. As
for their outcome, “no specific results have been reached yet”.

“The [OSCE Minsk Group] co-chairmen insist that there is progress. The
foreign ministers think we may speak about some progress but it is not
clear yet what progress has been made. No progress or preliminary
agreements may be reached without the consent and the participation of
the Karabakh people or without the discussion of the problem with the
Nagornyy Karabakh leadership. We should remain calm in that respect
and wait for a breakthrough. We still have no such results. There are
optimistic statements on both sides and it is not bad if they are
based on something,” Arman Melikyan said.

Touching on the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen’s visit to the region,
the Nagornyy Karabakh president, Arkadiy Gukasyan, said recently that
they were unlikely to come up with “a final programme of the conflict
settlement”.

“We can have a general idea of what the co-chairmen will come up with,
but this will hardly be a programme of final settlement,” Gukasyan
said. Commenting on official Baku’s suggestion about the need for
establishing a dialogue between the Armenian and Azerbaijani
communities of Nagornyy Karabakh, Gukasyan said “it wouldn’t be bad if
the Azerbaijani community organized a dialogue with the Greek,
Russian, Ukrainian and other communities of Karabakh. According to the
Nagornyy Karabakh president, Baku’s attempts to create the impression
that Nagornyy Karabakh is not a party to the conflict but is only a
community are evidence of how futile Azerbaijan’s approach to the
conflict settlement is.

Stepanakert is obviously frustrated with the fact that Karabakh has
been artificially sidelined from the settlement process. This
frustration is directed to both Yerevan and Baku, as well as the OSCE
Minsk Group.

The North Carolina State Technician, NC
July 13 2005

Hangin’ with hippies
Posted: 07.13.2005
Caroline Monday
It’s not the places you go, it’s the people you meet.

The end of my great European adventure is frighteningly close. Six
weeks down, two to go. My head is filled with memories of all the
places I’ve seen and all the lessons I’ve learned during this
experience. I can even pick one lesson that stands out above all the
rest: it’s not the places you go that make traveling worthwhile, it’s
the people you meet. Truly, never in my life have I met so many
amazing people so easily.

Last Sunday is an excellent example of how, though I am traveling by
myself, I am never alone. I met a boy from Key West named Brandon on
the bus from Vila Nova to Barcelona. Brandon is an 18-year-old,
self-proclaimed “hippy” with bright red dreadlocks. I’ll be honest,
if I had met Brandon at home we probably would never have been
friends. At home we would seem very different from one another. In
Europe we are both backpackers out for the same thing: to experience
the world.

Brandon and I ended up spending the entire afternoon together going
to modern art museums. He taught me a few things about Dali and I
explained the story of Don Quixote. In the end we exchanged e-mails
and went our separate ways, promising accommodations should one of us
ever be in the other’s part of the world.

Not an hour later I went to dinner with a girl from New York and an
Armenian violinist staying at the hostel. Thanks to the Armenian, it
was one of the most educational meals I have ever had. Did you know
Cher is Armenian? Apparently Armenia is one of the most overlooked
countries in the world.

After dinner the New Yorker and I wandered around La Rambla and came
across a square surrounded by clubs and restaurants and full of
people just hanging out. We found a seat near the fountain in the
square’s center where men were peddling cans of beer for one euro.

Immediately the guy sitting next to me and I strike up a
conversation. Mark is a Swedish anarchist who has lived in Barcelona
for four years. He is an artist who survives by squatting in houses
and dumpster diving at grocery stores. He explained how the police
were trying to control us and where to buy a good sandwich for less
than two euros. Pretty soon two other Swedish guys and two Kiwis (New
Zealanders) joined the group and we all decided to go to a nightclub
together.

I met all these people in one day and I have every reason to believe
I will meet just as many people tomorrow or the next day. I may not
remember what year the Eiffel Tower was built or which pope
commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel but I will
remember these people — even if I don’t remember all their names.