Author: Tashjian Arbi

SARGSYAN’S MEETINGS IN PARIS

Tert.am
13:00 ~U 11.03.10

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, during his recent visit to France,
had a meeting with the President of the French Senate, Gerard Larcher,
according to a press report released by the Armenian President’s
Office of Public Relations and Mass Media.

Sargsyan emphasized the specific role the two parliaments play for
further enhancing Armenia-France traditionally good-neighbourly
relations.

He also highly praised the activities of the France-Armenia
Parliamentary Friendship Group and the current level of cooperation
between inter-parliamentary bodies, as well as the regular visits
between the parliaments of Armenia and France.

Larcher, in turn, reaffirmed the Senate’s readiness to contribute to
the further enhancement of Armenian-French relations.

Sargsyan also met with the President of French National Assembly
Bernard Accoyer while in Paris. Sargsyan emphasized the significant
contribution by the France-Armenia friendship group’s former and
current chairs Francois Rochebloine and Rene Rouquet to enhancing
the bilateral good-neighbourly relations between the two countries.

Sargsyan and Accoyer exchanged ideas on regional issues and on the
perspectives of pushing friendly relations between Armenia and France
forward in different areas.

As the last leg of his tour, Sargsyan had a business supper with a
group of influential representatives of the French-Armenian community.

TURKEY: NO AMBASSADOR RETURNS TO U.S.

CCTV
r/20100310/102816.shtml
March 10 2010
China

Turkey’s Prime Minister says the country will not send back its
ambassador to the US until its resolution branding the 1915-era
killings of Armenians by Turkish forces as "genocide" remains open.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the future attitude of the US is very
important. Turkey recalled its ambassador to the US, Namik Tan, minutes
after a US congressional panel approved a resolution concerning Turkey
last Thursday.

The resolution calls the incidents of 1915 "genocide". Turkey strongly
rejects such allegations and regards the event as wartime civil strife
which claimed the lives of both Turks and Armenians.

Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols last October to normalize
relations. However, neither country’s parliament has passed them.

TURKISH-AMERICAN RELATIONS FACE ANOTHER TEST OVER THE ARMENIAN ISSUE
Saban Kardas

Georgian Daily
m_content&task=view&id=17604&Itemid=13 2
March 10 2010
Georgia

The United States House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee
narrowly passed a resolution, which calls on the president to refer
to the killing of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World
War I as "genocide."

Though it remains uncertain whether the resolution will be brought
before the full House, already, it has threatened to affect Turkey’s
relations with the US and Armenia.

Ankara reacted to this development promptly. Turkish government
officials reiterated strongly Turkey’s policy that any formal
recognition of "genocide" claims would jeopardize Turkish-American
strategic relations. They also repeated that this development would
unduly interfere with its own efforts to normalize relations with
Armenia, prematurely ending the current reconciliation process.

President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, attributed the vote to local
political considerations (, March 4).

In search of devising an appropriate response to the developments,
Ankara promptly recalled its Ambassador to Washington, Namik Tan. The
Turkish foreign ministry also summoned US Ambassador to Ankara,
James Jeffrey.

Outraged by the resolution, Turkish public and political actors
increasingly adopted nationalist rhetoric, arguing that Turkey could
not be dictated to from outside. A discussion on how Turkey might
"retaliate," if the resolution were to be adopted by the US Congress,
has already commenced. Speculation ranges from Turkey’s exclusion
of US companies from defense contracts to shutting down the Incirlik
airbase or withdrawing Turkish troops from Afghanistan. In response to
one question, Davutoglu did not rule out any of these options, noting
that the cabinet would consider all possibilities (Aksam, March 5).

These developments raise questions about Ankara’s relations with
Washington on many levels. In the days preceding the vote, Turkish
parliamentarians and government officials had flooded Washington in
an effort to block the resolution. Joined by Turkish interest groups
based in the US, they campaigned against the resolution. Also, several
US companies doing business with Turkey raised objections against the
resolution (Cihan, March 2). The passage of the resolution represents a
"defeat" for Turkish lobbying efforts. Nonetheless, Turks are seeking
refuge in the fact that the resolution only passed with a narrow
margin. Turkish lobbyists in Washington argue that the resolution
may never see the House floor, under pressure from the administration
(Hurriyet Daily News, March 8).

>>From the Turkish perspective, the real puzzle is how the Obama
administration will handle this issue. Administration officials
expressed objections to the House resolution. However, the Turkish
side found the administration’s efforts half-hearted, as they came at
the last minute and failed to prevent an affirmative vote. Davutoglu
expressed concern that the administration did not throw its weight
against the vote, which, in his eyes, indicated that they did not
fully appreciate Turkey’s strategic value. "This picture deeply
disturbed us," he added. Responding to criticism from the US,
Davutoglu rejected the assertion that Turkey had caused any "delays"
and warned that if Congress insisted on its course, it might "kill"
the entire normalization process with Armenia (Aksam, March 5).

In the coming days, therefore, Obama’s position on the "genocide"
resolution is likely to be the greatest test of his new vision for a
"model partnership" with Turkey. When the Foreign Affairs Committee
adopted a similar resolution in 2007, the Bush administration prevented
it from being discussed before the House, arguing that it would harm
strategic ties with a geopolitically indispensable ally.

The Obama administration maintained the same presidential position
on this issue.

Although both Obama and US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton,
had pledged to support the Armenian theses during their 2008
election campaigns, once in office they prioritized United States’
strategic interests. Obama avoided uttering the word "genocide" in
his April 24, 2009 statement on Armenian Remembrance Day, though
condemning the killings in strong language. The administration
managed to avoid criticism from Armenian groups, arguing that the
United States should promote efforts by the Turkish and Armenian
leaders to seek reconciliation (EDM, April 28, 2009). Following
the Foreign Affairs Committee vote, Clinton again used the same
reasoning to prevent Congress’ further involvement in the matter:
"[we] have made clear, both last year and again this year that we do
not believe any action by Congress is appropriate, and we oppose it,"
said Clinton (, March 4).

The next test will be Obama’s statement on April 24. The Turkish
side is again mobilizing all its assets to prevent Obama from using
the term "genocide," and sending signals that Turkey will not be the
one to lose if the US administration succumbs to pressures from the
Armenian lobby. The way out of this looming stalemate seems to hinge
on the conclusion of the Turkish-Armenian normalization.

However, Turkey and Armenia have proven unable to maintain their
initial momentum, and the prospects of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation
are weakening every day. Both Ankara and Yerevan refrained from sending
the protocols they signed last year for parliamentary approval,
expecting the other side to take the first step. Meanwhile, Ankara
objected to a ruling by the Armenian constitutional court, arguing
that it violated the spirit of the protocols (EDM, January 26). If the
parties fail to secure another breakthrough over the next few weeks,
Obama might run out of arguments to justify his failure to satisfy the
expectations of the Armenian lobby, coming under increasing pressure
as April 24 approaches.

Herein lies the dilemma, which highlights how Turkish-US relations are
entangled with Turkish-Armenian normalization. The US administration
believes that the overall progress so far has been satisfactory,
yet the Turkish government should take further steps, especially
forwarding the protocols for parliamentary ratification, to re-energize
the process. However, the Turkish government argues that as long as the
Armenian lobby pursues anti-Turkey decisions, Ankara will be unable to
proceed with the normalization. Thus, reportedly, Davutoglu decided
to wait until April 24 to take any further step on the parliamentary
ratification process, in order that the US may first take some positive
steps (Hurriyet, March 6). It will be interesting to follow how the
parties untie this knot.

Source:

ARTIST DEFIANT DESPITE FINE FOR TURKISH PM ‘MOCKERY’
By Jonathan Head

BBC NEWS
805.stm
2010/03/09 21:15:45 GMT

A British artist whose collage was found to have mocked Turkey’s
prime minister has been fined by a court in Istanbul.

Michael Dickinson walked smiling from the Kadikoy district court,
a free man, but not completely off the hook.

The judge ruled that the British artist had crossed the line with
his cartoon, superimposing the head of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
on the body of a dog, and found him guilty of insulting Mr Erdogan’s
"dignity and honour".

The judge sentenced him to 425 days in prison, the first time anyone
has been jailed for criticising the prime minister.

But the sentence was immediately commuted to a fine of about £3,000.

When a defiant Mr Dickinson insisted he would not pay, the judge
explained that, provided he made no new cartoons of the prime minister
over the next five years, the fine would be put aside.

"Of course I’m relieved", he told the BBC outside the court.

"I didn’t know what to expect. But I still don’t think I should have
been guilty, and I’m not saying I’m not going to make any more cartoons
of politicians."

It has been quite a legal saga for the 59-year-old teacher, writer,
anti-war activist and founder of the Istanbul branch of the Stuckist
art movement.

‘Best in Show’

He was originally charged under the draconian article 125 of the
Turkish criminal code in June 2006, after exhibiting a collage titled
"Best in Show".

It showed George W Bush leaning over and tying a bow around the neck
of a dog with Mr Erdogan’s head on it, as a critique of Turkey’s
alliance with the United States.

" At least in Britain I could make satirical pictures of Gordon
Brown and not go to jail " Michael Dickinson The case against Mr
Dickinson, originally from County Durham, was dropped, but outside
court he displayed a similar cartoon to journalists, in protest he
said against the prosecution of his Turkish colleagues.

When that case finally came to court in September 2008 he was acquitted
– but the verdict was overthrown on appeal by a state prosecutor.

The prosecutor insisted the crime was so serious that Mr Dickinson
must do time in prison.

The judge seems to have found a way out of the potentially embarrassing
scenario of a foreign artist being put behind bars for offending the
prime minister.

Nevertheless the case will ring alarm bells with human rights groups
documenting what they say are multiple attacks on freedom of expression
in Turkey.

Some originate with the famously thin-skinned prime minister himself.

Michael Dickinson is not the first cartoonist, for example, to be
sued for depicting Mr Erdogan as an animal.

One notable edition of the satirical magazine Penguen in 2005 had him
represented as no fewer than nine animals – that case was thrown out
by the judge, but Mr Erdogan has won thousands of pounds in damages
over the years.

‘I like it here’

But journalists and writers often face far more serious charges.

One article in the criminal code – the infamous "301" on insulting
"Turkishness" – has been used to prosecute award-winning novelists
Orhan Pamuk and Elif Safak, and Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink,
who was murdered by a Turkish nationalist in 2007.

Powerful prosecutors are prepared to go after any journalist deemed
to be sympathetic to terrorist groups.

Last month a Kurdish journalist was jailed for 21 years because his
paper used a respectful term of address when describing the jailed
Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Another Kurdish journalist is facing up to 525 years in prison on
similar charges.

Also last month, the editor of a well-known newspaper website was
freed after spending 10 months in prison, suspected only because she
had met the leader of an extreme left-wing group.

By those standards Michael Dickinson can count himself lucky.

So what are his plans now? He went back to the UK last year, after
24 years in Turkey, but says he did not like his native country much.

"I like it here, I like the food, the people, the weather", he said.

"But at least in Britain I could make satirical pictures of Gordon
Brown and not go to jail."

RETURNING TO TIES BETWEEN TURKS, ARMENIANS

Hurriyet, Turkey
March 7 2010

History is, of course, written as much by mistakes as by what we
get right. Had Napoleon listened to his advisors on the weather, he
might not have lost the Battle of Waterloo to the Duke of Wellington
in 1815. Our world would be different today.

It is interesting to imagine what might have ensued had the alliance
forged in 1907 between the nationalist "Young Turks" and the
nationalist Armenian "Dashnaks" not broken down in 1912.

Had neutral Turkey’s entry into the World War I not been precipitated
by bungling over the delivery of gunships commissioned from England,
and the "gift" of the re-flagged German cruiser Goeben, who knows how
very different the history of the early 20th Century might have been.

The recitation of such events is, however, just an empty exercise in
historical nostalgia. The list of the mistakes by ignorant political
leaders is a long one. But much shorter is the list of errors knowingly
made in the face of warnings, pleadings and the best advice available.

We cannot imagine, for example, that six weeks before the April 10,
1998, "Good Friday Agreement" peace brokered between the long-warring
factions in Northern Island, that the U.S. Congress’s Foreign Affairs
Committee would have weighed in with an incendiary decree on the
political factors behind the Irish Potato Famine of 1845.

We certainly cannot imagine that sometime in August 1978, in the run-up
to the negotiations that led to the "Camp David Accords" signed by
Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat and Menechem Begin on Sept. 12 of that year,
the same committee might have decided to condemn Begin’s role in the
1946 bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

Are there strong views on English complicity in the "Potato Famine?"

No doubt. Did Begin’s terrorist Irgun gang kill 91 innocent people?

Most historians agree he did. But no one in their right mind would ever
expect anyone with as grave and profound a set of responsibilities
as the chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee to do
something so blindly stupid.

But that is exactly what Democrat Howard Berman of California did. It
took years of quiet diplomacy, ceaseless efforts by academics and
journalists in Turkey and Armenia and earnest exchanges by artists and
musicians to lead us to the edge of a historic normalization protocol.

It took just moments for Berman to effectively kill it. Armenia is
likely to remain economically and geographically isolated for another
decade. Nationalists on both sides will feast on the fallout.

For what? We cannot know what Berman was thinking last week. We
do know he committed a meaningless and stupid mistake. Berman can
go back to Hollywood. We must go back to rebuilding ties in an
already-so-troubled neighborhood.

ARMENIA’S ‘BANANTS’ FOOTBALL TEAM LOSES TO DANISH ‘ORSENS’

Aysor
March 8 2010
Armenia

Armenia’s ‘Banants’ football team lost to Danish ‘Orsens’ team in
Turkey’s Antalya at the second round of the foreign games, which are
held within the framework of trainings.

A spokesperson to the football team said that the game was really
very interesting, despite the Danish team knocked the spots off.

Armenian team was represented by following players: Tsvetomir Tsankov,
Nikolay Nikolov, Darko Lovrich, Edward Kakosian, Gagik Dagbhashian,
Ararat Arakelian, Samvel Melkonian, Beto, Arsen Balabekian, Du Bala,
Deniran Ortega. After the break, included in the game were Arthur
Voskanian, Sargis Karapetian, Walter Pogosian, and Sargis Nasibian.

The next game will take place on March 10. ‘Banants’ will play against
Kyrgyzstan’s champion ‘Dordoy-Dynamo.’

Greece Should Sell its Islands to Reduce Debt: German Politicians

11:20 – 05.03.10

Greece should consider selling some of its uninhabited islands to cut
its debt, according to political allies of German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, reports BBC News.

Two senior politicians in Europe’s biggest economy, Josef Schlarmann
and Frank Schaeffler, told Germany’s Bild daily that the Greek state
should sell stakes in all its assets to raise more cash.

Greek PM George Papandreou is due to meet Merkel in Berlin later this
week for talks about the crisis.

Schlarmann is a senior member of Merkel’s Christian Democrats and
Schaeffler is an MP for the Free Democrats – the junior partner in the
centre-right coalition.

Both confirmed to the BBC that they wanted to start a debate about
what Greece could do to help itself and bolster the battered euro.

According to a poll published on Thursday, 84% of Germans think that
the EU should not help Greece out of its debt crisis.

Tert.am

PRESS RELEASE
Glendale Public Library
222 East Harvard Street
Glendale CA 91205
Tel: 818-548-2030
Web:

95TH ANNIVERSARY SYMPOSIUM ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

GLENDALE, CA Glendale Public Library proudly hosts the 95TH Anniversary
Symposium on the Armenian Genocide, at the Glendale Public Library
Auditorium, 222 East Harvard Street, on Sunday, April 18, 2010,
3:00-6:00 pm. Admission is free.

Agence France Presse
March 5 2010

Turkey urges US to block ‘genocide’ bill

By Sibel Utku Bila (AFP) `

ANKARA ‘ Turkey reacted angrily on Friday to a US Congress panel’s
resolution calling the Ottoman-era massacre of Armenians "genocide"
warning of damage to US ties and efforts to reconcile with Armenia.

Having recalled its ambassador immediately after the resolution was
adopted, Ankara warned that Washington risked a showdown with a key
Muslim ally if the resolution advanced to a full vote at the House of
Representatives.

Turkey is "seriously disturbed" that President Barack Obama’s
administration "did not put enough weight" behind efforts to prevent
the resolution from being passed by the Foreign Affairs Committee,
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

"We expect the US administration to make more efficient efforts from
now on," he said.

"We hope Turkish-US ties will not be put to a new test … otherwise,
the prospect that we will face will not be a positive one," he added,
calling the issue a "matter of national honour."

The committee passed the non-binding resolution on Thursday by a slim
23-22 margin, ignoring pressure from Turkey and the White House.

Davutoglu said Turkey would consider counter-action, but did not
elaborate, saying only that consultations with the recalled envoy
"could take a long time."

President Abdullah Gul has warned that "Turkey will not be responsible
for the negative ramifications this vote may have in every field."

NATO member Turkey is a prominent Muslim partner in US efforts to
stabilise Afghanistan and Iraq, and lies on a key route taking oil and
natural gas to Western markets.

The US army has long used a Turkish base for operations in Afghanistan
and Iraq, and US companies have won lucrative tenders to arm the
Turkish military.

Davutoglu said the resolution also raised the "the risk of stopping"
bridge-building efforts with Armenia and stressed that Turkey would
not bow to pressure to ratify a troubled peace deal with its eastern
neighbour.

"We are determined to normalise Turkish-Armenian ties but we are
against this being secured through the intervention of third parties
and through pressure," he said.

The non-binding resolution calls on Obama to ensure that US foreign
policy reflects an understanding of the "genocide" and to label the
mass killings as such in his annual statement on the issue.

Following US-backed talks to end decades of hostility, Turkey and
Armenia signed a deal in October to establish diplomatic relations and
open their border.

But the process has already hit obstacles, with Ankara accusing
Yerevan of trying to tweak the terms of the deal and Yerevan charging
that Ankara is not committed to ratifying the accord.

Davutoglu said the Armenian massacres should be studied by historians
and lashed out at US lawmakers for passing a judgement as part of
"local political games."

Stressing that only another "no" vote would have killed the
resolution, he said: "One vote would have changed the flow of
history… How can history be taken so lightly?"

Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed during World War I
as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, a claim supported by several
other countries.

Turkey argues 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks
died in what was a civil strife when Armenians rose up against their
Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

Washington has traditionally condemned the killings, but refrained
from calling them a "genocide," anxious not to strain relations with
Turkey.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged the committee not to
hold the vote for fear it might harm Armenia-Turkey reconciliation.

"We do not believe the full Congress will or should act on that
resolution," she said.

Obama pledged during his election campaign to recognise the massacres
as genocide, but has so far refrained from using the term.

During a visit to Turkey in April, Obama said he retained his view
that the killings amounted to genocide but stressed that
reconciliation between the two neighbours was more important.

Linking Armenian Genocide to Armenian-Turkish process is unpromising for Turkey

06.03.2010 12:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ It was difficult for Armenia to begin the
reconciliation process with Turkey without recognition of the Armenian
Genocide by Turkey. However, Armenia stated that the Genocide
recognition by Turkey is not a precondition for launching the process,
Edward Nalbandian, Foreign Minister of Armenia told the Armenian
Public Television.

"Linking the Armenian Genocide international recognition to the
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation is unpromising for Turkey," the
foreign minister of Armenia said.

"We have always acted honestly, openly, without ulterior motive,
mediators and the countries supporting this process witness it. We
stated what we did, and did what we said, " Nalbandian stressed.

Nalbandian refused to comment on those possible consequences to be
faced by Turkey if the Armenian-Turkish process would fail, noting
that at least the level of trust to Turkey will strongly reduce.

RA Foreign Minister recalled that the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation
was initiated by Armenia, and Yerevan received support of the
international community on this issue. "The whole world supported us
in this process. Our actions are understood by all countries, " the
minister said. According to him, in the case of failure Armenia in the
worst case will return to the situation before September 6, 2008
(visit of the Turkish President to Yerevan), but with enhanced
prestige in the international arena.

Yerevan has been the initiator of the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation,
Nalbandian said, while Turkey has always been the responding party,
and now Armenia is awaiting a response from Turkey. "We hope this
answer would not become a victim of artificial excuses and will be
positive," the foreign minister said.