Author: Tambiyan Samvel

Turks may look back with anger at Israel
By Bulent Aras, Commentary by

The Daily Star
Friday, May 06, 2005

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Israel earlier
this week had more symbolic than practical meaning for the future of
Turkish foreign policy. After all, the Turkish-Israeli relationship
has its limits, and the expectations that came out of the military
rapprochement of the late-1990s have not been met and were subsequently
followed by a cooling of relations.

One reason for this was that the Turkish-Israeli-American axis was
an extension of the national security apparatuses in both Israel and
Turkey and did not necessarily serve Ankara’s interests as it embarked
on a reform process to achieve democratization, improve human rights
and freedoms and establish the rule of law. Turkey’s putting its
house in order gave it self-confidence in its regional policies, and
its diplomacy sought to minimize problems with neighboring states. It
also aimed to become a peace promoter and altered its policies toward
a number of problems in the Middle East.

Will this new foreign policy approach last? Where do Turkish-Israeli
relations, and indeed Turkish regional policy, stand in its shadow?
In the recent past, Erdogan was openly critical of the policies of
the Sharon government in the West Bank and Gaza. At the same time,
Turkey did not join the U.S-led coalition in Iraq, even as it has
exerted enormous effort to mobilize regional support for a stable
Iraqi state, with Turkish policymakers on a regular basis bringing
together the countries bordering Iraq to address the situation there.

On the other side, Syria and Iran have looked positively on Turkey’s
accession process to the European Union, and believe a European Turkey
will offer them a chance to develop their own relations with the EU.

These examples underline that Turkey’s new orientation prioritizes
the notion of democratic legitimacy in its foreign relations and
supports multilateralism and the critical role played by the United
Nations in world politics. However, two developments have generated
suspicion among observers about the durability of this new approach:
first, Turkey has not been as active as expected in pushing Syria to
fulfill the demands of the international community, in particular,
initially, its withdrawal from Lebanon. Second, Turkish-Israeli
relations seem to be returning to what they were, shaped by the
premises of power politics.

During a visit to Israel in January, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul indicated that there had been serious talks on Turkey’s playing
a possible mediation role between Israel and the Palestinians,
but also between Syria and Israel in the future. However, Erdogan
toned down such ambitions during his visit to Israel and focused,
more generally, on the necessity of peace and stability in the Middle
East. In response, his counterpart, Ariel Sharon, praised Turkish
efforts to promote regional peace.

The friendly atmosphere was mostly due to the reality of bilateral
political, economic and military relations. However, it also seems
that Turkey has eased up in pushing Israel to be more sensitive to
regional balances and to be more responsible and constructive with
the Palestinians. The Turkish agenda it seems is now to use Israel
as a gateway to the United States and against the pro-Greek and
pro-Armenian lobbies there.

Turkey must maintain a delicate balance between its new orientation and
its old-style security-first regional policies. If Turkey is to be a
multicultural and democratic state which prioritizes the rule of law,
the new political elite should pay attention to international laws,
norms and principles as well as the tendencies of its own society
in foreign policy formulation. Most Turks are very sensitive to
the Palestinian problem and would be unhappy if their government
sided with Israel. They have no problem with pursuing legitimate
relations with the Israelis and calling for peace between them and
the Palestinians. What they would find much more problematic is that
their policymakers tolerate Sharon’s maneuvers, Israel’s violence in
the Occupied Territories and its ignoring the legitimate concerns of
other actors in the region.

Turkey’s new foreign policy orientation opened new horizons in
its relations with neighboring states and was closely linked to
the transformation in the domestic Turkish landscape. Turkey saw
considerable progress in its move toward EU membership and gained
enough leverage to emerge as a civil-economic power in the Middle
East. Relations with Syria and Israel, perhaps later with Iran,
will be test cases for Turkey’s emergence as an active peacemaker in
the Middle East. It is the only country in the region that has some
leverage over both Palestinians and Israelis.

On the other hand, if Turkey revives the power politics approach
toward regional affairs that was visible in the 1990s, and if this
leads to its overlooking the Palestinians and the legitimate demands of
Israel’s other neighbors, most Turks will regard this as an unwelcome
return to the past. There are other ways of improving relations with
the U.S. The current Erdogan government is both a cause and a result
of the recent transformation of Turkish society. Its hold on power
is very much dependent on its ability to understanding this reality
when it formulates both its domestic and foreign policies.

Bulent Aras is associate professor of international relations at Fatih
University in Istanbul. He wrote this commentary for THE DAILY STAR.

RA PRIME MINISTER INVITED BELARUSIAN COLLEAGUE TO ARMENIA

Pan Armenian News
04.05.2005 05:23

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margarian and
Belarusian Premier Sergey Sidorsky expressed satisfaction with the
present level of the Armenian-Belarusian relations and stated they
are ready to strengthen them in future, RA government’s press service
reported. During the meeting with his Belarusian colleague the Armenian
Prime Minister noted that the warm relations established by the
Presidents of the two states contribute to bilateral cooperation. The
interlocutors pointed out to the fact that the Armenian-Belarusian
economic cooperation has activated recently. Thus, the work carried
out by the Armenian-Belarusian intergovernmental commission on
economic cooperation formed in 1999 has considerably contributed to
the commodity turnover growth. The parties also noted the import of
30 BelAz lorries to Armenia to the sum of $4 million. Upon completion
of the meeting Andranik Margarian thanked his Belarusian associate
for cordial reception and invited him to Armenia.

Schröder Seeks Turkish ‘Mentality Change’

Deutsche Welle, Germany
May 3 2005

Before a planned visit to Turkey this week, German Chancellor Gerhard
Schröder said the country needed a “change in mentality” to make
reform efforts stick ahead of EU accession talks in October.

“The reforms must be further implemented, and we should be assured of
their irreversibility,” Schröder told the Turkish daily Milliyet, just
before his two-day trip to Bosnia and Turkey, which begins on Tuesday.

The German leader was referring especially to reforms affecting
fundamental freedoms, as well as minority and human rights. But he
left no doubts that EU accession negotiations for Turkey would start
on October 3 as planned.

The EU accession talks will be the main focus of meetings, planned
four months ago during an EU summit in Brussels, with Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Ahmet Sezer.

‘Impressive policies’

In the past weeks, Prime Minister Erdogan has been accused of letting
his country’s reform efforts slip.

However, Schröder praised the “impressive reform policies” of the
Turkish government. He noted that Erdogan himself has implied that a
“change in mentality” is necessary before the policies can be put
into effect.

“Such a change in mentality won’t take place overnight. But it is
necessary in order for reforms and changes in the law to become
everyday, widely accepted practices,” Schröder told the newspaper.

‘Difficult’ negotiations ahead

The progress of the reform process will make a decisive difference
in determining how the developments of the EU talks, Schröder told
the paper. “The negotiations themselves will certainly be long and
also difficult.”

The chancellor noted that Turkey needs to enlarge its EU tariff
agreements with the new member states by October 3 — which will mean
a de facto recognition of Cyprus by Ankara.

“A speedy solution to the Cyprus problem would of course make the
accession talks much easier,» Schröder said.

Schröder agreed with Turkey’s suggestion of forming a history
commission to handle discussions of the massacre of Armenians 90
years ago, in what was then known as the Ottoman Empire.

EU seeks ‘genocide’ admission

In their expulsion from the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923,
some 1.5 million Armenians died from violence or starvation and
disease. To date, Ankara has refused to call it genocide, although
the European Parliament has demanded an admission that Turkey own up
to the mass killings.

Prior to his visits to Ankara and Istanbul, Schröder will visit
Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Sarajevo he’ll meet with Prime Minister Adnan
Terzic, and will visit the EUFOR field camp in Rajlovac, just outside
of the capital. The German army has had a presence in Bosnia since
the signing of the peace accord 10 years ago. DW Staff (jen)

–Boundary_(ID_hB/9J5Uc2sdRo4PCP48gPA)–

EKathimerini, Greece
International Herald Tribube
May 3 2005

New claims raise pressure on patriarch

Irenaios ‘tried to appease Israelis’

The embattled Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem leased Church
property in the holy city to Jewish groups to prove to Israeli
authorities that he does not sympathize with the Palestinians, the
Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Sunday, citing Irenaios’s fugitive
former financial manager, Nikos Papadimas.

The report came just two days after the Israeli newspaper that first
carried claims of the land deal, Maariv, published excerpts of what
it said was the eight-page lease agreement between the Patriarchate
and unidentified foreign Jewish investors.

The alleged deal has infuriated Palestinians who fear it would expand
Israeli control of Arab east Jerusalem, which they want as the capital
of a future Palestinian state. Israel claims the whole city as its
indivisible capital.

Greek and Palestinian officials at the Patriarchate have called for
Irenaios’s resignation, while the Greek Foreign Ministry has strongly
hinted the patriarch should step down.

Irenaios has denied the allegations and accused Papadimas of embezzling
church funds. Speaking to Greek pilgrims yesterday, he once again
maintained his innocence.

“May my hands be cut off if I have stolen,” he said. “Fresh mud sticks,
but once it has dried it falls away… We have betrayed nobody, and
our last breath will be drawn for the Holy Sepulcher… Unfortunately,
there are worms and pieces of rubbish… even among our brotherhood.”

For two years, the Israeli government had refused to approve Irenaios’s
election as patriarch, suspecting him of being anti-Israel and of
having close ties to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who died in
November. But in January 2004 – following considerable pressure from
Athens – Israel suddenly confirmed Irenaios in his post and shortly
afterward, the church leader signed over two Palestinian-inhabited
buildings in Jerusalem’s Old City to a Jewish lessee working through
a company in the Bahamas, Papadimas was quoted as telling Haaretz.

Papadimas, who vanished three months ago, is wanted in Greece after
Church officials in Athens accused him of absconding with 600,000
euros in church funds. His wife is wanted on separate charges of
money laundering. The newspaper claimed Papadimas is hiding in the
United States.

Opponents of Irenaios had threatened to disrupt Orthodox Christian
Easter rituals in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Saturday but
were kept away by hundreds of Israeli police, who set up barricades
in the alleys leading to the Jerusalem holy site. This followed
protests by Palestinians on Friday outside the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher. Meanwhile, in a fight over precedence inside the church
on Saturday afternoon, Armenian priests attacked Irenaios and his
retinue ahead of the flame-lighting ceremony on the spot Christians
identify as Christ’s grave. (Combined reports)

YNetNews.com, Israel
April 30 2005

Holy Saturday service passes quietly

Greek Orthodox and Armenian followers mark Holy Saturday with flame
lighting ceremony at Church of the Sepulchre
By Efrat Weiss and Shani Mizrachi

JERUSALEM – The Greek Orthodox ceremony marking Holy Saturday was
held at the Church of the Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s old city Saturday
without disturbance, despite police concerns of possible
confrontation.

More than 100,000 tourists and believers gathered at the church to
participate in the `Sabbath of Light’ ceremony.

The ceremony, in which a holy flame is lit, is considered one of the
most important ceremonies in Christianity marking the day before
Jesus’s resurrection and the day after his crucifixion.

According to tradition, Jerusalem’s Greek and Armenian patriarchs
lead the ceremony. The Greek patriarch enters the tomb and lights the
flame. His Armenian counterpart then leaves the site with the burning
flame.

Under control

Meanwhile, Jerusalem district police commander Ilan Franco, his
deputy Shimon Koren, Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi and Interior
Minster Gideon Sa’ar were present at the site.

No disturbances were reported, despite police concerns of possible
protest by Greek Orthodox followers who demonstrated Friday in
protest to the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Irineos I.

Both Christian and several Muslim Palestinians rallied outside the
Church waving Palestinian flags in protest to Irineos, who has been
accused of selling Greek Orthodox Church land in Jerusalem to Jews.

Irineos had been conducting Good Friday mass inside the church at the
time.

,7340,L-3079246,00.html

Turkish Press
April 28 2005

Politics Defeated By History

Can Dundar, a columnist in Milliyet daily comments on the recent
developments between Turkey and Armenia regarding the Armenian claims
of genocide in his article titled ”Politics Defeated by History.”

Dundar writes in his article that Turkey has recently changed its
policy on Turkish-Armenian dispute and comments that ”at last Turkey
has realized that it can’t stay deaf to the Armenian genocide claims
voiced in the world, anymore.”

”Turkey has launched a counter attack against those claims, started
to re-scan all of its archives and publish many documents on the
issue,” Dundar says, approving those initiatives of Turkey.

Referring to the reply of Armenian President Kocharian to Prime
Minister Erdogan’s letter, Dundar says ”in his reply to Erdogan’s
proposal (of forming a joint commission) Kocharian said this would be
leaving the responsibility of bilateral relations to historians; and
instead, he proposed first of all to have normal diplomatic relations
between the two countries. Erdogan replied to that, saying ‘we should
first sort out the historical problems’, urging Armenia to open all
of its archives.”

Dundar comments in his article that ”these remarks of the two
leaders show that Turkey and Armenia changed their earlier positions.
Armenians, who had earlier urged Turkey to recognize the so-called
genocide first to normalize diplomatic relations, now wants to have
diplomatic relations with Turkey first and deal with the genocide
issue later. Turkey argues the contrary now.”

Dundar says this new policy (or counter attack) of Turkey has some
problems, too. ”Turkey’s thesis of denying the genocide allegations
by investigating and publishing historical documents doesn’t stop
various countries’ parliaments from adopting ‘so-called genocide
resolutions’ one after another. However Ankara still try to comfort
itself saying that President Bush hasn’t mentioned the word
‘genocide,’ but just used the word ‘massacre’ in his speech on April
24th. Turkey, which is far more behind Armenians in lobbying, can’t
be successful in this new policy.”

”What is more important is that Ankara which has the chance of
eliminating or at least decreasing the influence of Armenian diaspora
by having direct relations with Yerevan, turns down this chance and
pushes Yerevan to assume the same stance as the Diaspora,” Dundar
says.

”Challenge can sometimes be a good tactic in foreign policy, but a
permanent method that can yield fruitful results is to take brave
steps and prevent the past from being an obstacle for the future.
Starting diplomatic relations and opening border gates will both
start dialogue between the two peoples, and it will also decrease the
pressure of the world on Turkey. We need politicians who can take the
risk of a new start,” Dundar summarizes his views in the last
paragraph of his article.

OPERATION ON INTERNATIONAL CHIP CARD CARRIED OUT THIS MONTH FOR FIRST
TIME IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN, APRIL 28. ARMINFO. Operation on the international chip card
was carried out this month for the first time in Armenia. Director of
the CJSC Armenian Card Shahen Hovhannisyan reports today speaking at a
meeting dedicated to the 5th anniversary of the National United
Payment System (UPS) ArCa. He says that all the ArCa member-banks will
start serving chip card this year. The work on issue of chip cards
ArCa, Visa and MasterCard will start in 2006 and will be completed in
2007.

He informs that introduction of a number of systems is planned for the
future, that is, transfer of money from card to card, management of
card and bank accounts, replenishment of card account through
cash-dispenser, service of international cards Visa and MasterCard on
the system e-commerce, introduction and exploitation of reserve
processing center etc..

At present, UPS ArCa members are 14 commercial banks, with another 2
having applied for membership (Interinvestbank and Areximbank). The
number of the issued cards ArCa, Visa and MasterCard reaches 70,000,
today, 60 cash-dispensers and 565 chasing in points as well as 10
internet-shop operate. A united system, of communal payments through
Internet and bankomat systems has been introduced. On the whole, since
2001 up to April 26 2005 transactions for 67.2 bln AMD were carried
out on ArCa cards, Hovhannissyan says.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 27, 2005 Wednesday 6:54 AM Eastern Time

Georgia adequate compensation for evacuated bases unlikely – MP

MOSCOW

Moscow should not expect an adequate compensation by Georgia for the
infrastructure of Russian military bases that are to be evacuated
from Georgia, the deputy chief of the State Duma’s defence committee,
Sergei Grigoryev told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

Commenting of result of Tuesday’s Russian-Georgian talks in Moscow he
said “ill thought-out decisions could be made under pressure of
Georgia’s central authorities on accelerated evaluation of our bases
that traditionally play the role of a stabilising factor in the
Armenian-populated Akhalkalaki and Adzharian Batumi”.

The example of Iraq shows that “regardless of rhetoric of initiators
of this ‘demilitarisation’, a slightest vacuum of order and forces
that keep it on border of different cultures, religions and
ethnicities, can be used be extremists of different kinds for the
realisation of their far from peaceful plans”, the parliamentarian
said.

He added that the evacuation of the bases would “cost the Russian
defence ministry 300 million dollars as a minimum”.

Moscow can hardly expect an adequate compensation by Georgia for the
infrastructure left behind the bases, he said.

Grigoryev stressed that “it must not be allowed that Russian military
servicemen are again re-based in slapdash fashion to unprepared areas
al ensuing consequences for the sake of somebody’s caprices”.

The hasty pullout of Russian military bases from Georgia can “upset a
fragile equilibrium in the explosive multiethnic region, in which
interests of a whole number of neighbouring, Western European and
trans-oceanic states intersect and collide,” Grigoryev said.

Moscow has admitted a possibility of beginning the withdraw of the
military bases from Batumi and Akhalkalaki in 2005.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after his talks with
Georgian counterpart Salome Zurabishvili on Tuesday that the
withdrawal “will be gradual and could begin as early as this year in
case accord is reached”.

Zurabishvili had said in interview with the mss media that the
Russian bases must be evacuated by January 1, 2008.

Agence France Presse
24 avril 2005 dimanche

Marseille: pose de la première pierre d’un mémorial du génocide
arménien

MARSEILLE 24 avr 2005

Quelques milliers de personnes ont assisté dimanche midi à Marseille
à la pose de la première pierre d’un mémorial public du génocide
arménien, à l’occasion du 90e anniversaire des massacres perpétrés en
1915 par le régime des Jeunes-Turcs, a constaté une journaliste de
l’AFP.

“Il a fallu attendre 2001 pour que la France reconnaisse le génocide
arménien, combien de temps faudra-t-il à la Turquie?”, a déclaré lors
de la cérémonie le président socialiste du Conseil régional de
Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Michelle Vauzelles, avant de lancer: “non
à l’entrée de la Turquie dans l’Europe tant qu’elle n’aura pas
reconnu le génocide arménien”.

“Nous ne cesserons pas de demander que la Turquie d’aujourd’hui
reconnaisse le génocide de 1915”, a assuré après lui le maire UMP de
Marseille, Jean-Claude Gaudin, également vice-président du Sénat.

M. Vauzelles et Jean-Noël Guérini, président socialiste du conseil
général des Bouches-du-Rhône ont tous deux souhaité qu’un lycée de la
région soit baptisé du nom d’un “grand résistant arménien”.

“Les Arméniens attendent depuis longtemps ce mémorial public.
Aujourd’hui, on vient de donner une sépulture aux morts”, a estimé
Gilbert Kerkerian, d’origine arménienne et conseiller municipal de la
ville de Marseille, considérée comme la deuxième communauté
arménienne de France avec quelque 80.000 personnes.

Un parchemin avec des écrits d’enfants issus de la communauté
arménienne a été inclus dans la première pierre du mémorial, qui doit
être inauguré dans un an.

A1plus

| 15:07:56 | 26-04-2005 | Politics |

TURKISH ARCHIVES SHOULD BE OPENED

«I am convinced that Kemal Pasha had a Black Book, which contained the
places and number of people exiled. Without the opening of the Turkish
archives the Genocide of 1915 is the same what the Holocaust without German
documents is», Professor Richard Hovhannisyan stated today at the seminar
entitled «Armenian Genocide. 90 years».

The historian stressed that it should be clarified whether the Genocide was
perpetrated in 1915-1921 or it started earlier, in 1886, under Sultan Amid.
The clarification of this question will help to determine the exact number
of victims. Professor Hovhannisyan does not share the opinion that the
documents referring to the Armenian Genocide were eliminated in the Turkish
archives lone ago. «To date Taleat Pasha’s documents are used in different
books and editions. One of them says, «Do not exile the rest of the
Christians». Here a question arouses. Who were not exiled and not exiled
Christians? » he says.

In the opinion of Richard Hovhannisyan we yield to Turkey in propaganda.
«When you open the website of the Turkish Embassy in the US you can see that
it is filled with the materials on Khodjalu events while our website is
empty», he noted.

Outcomes of the public survey held by the Armenian Center for National and
International Studies on the occasion of the 90-th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide were also presented at the seminar. 1900 Armenian citizens
took part in the survey. The purpose of the survey was to find out the
awareness and attitude of the Armenian people towards the Genocide issue. 2
of the 40 questions referred to the Karabakh conflict and its settlement.
Most respondents marked the direct connection between the Genocide and the
Karabakh problem.