Author: Tigranian Ani

TURKEY THREATENS TO DEPORT ARMENIANS FOR TALKING ABOUT DEPORTATIONS

Gawker.com
/turkey-threatens-to-deport-armenians-for-talking- about-deportations
March 17 2010

The fight over what to officially call the Armenian genocide after WW1
is heating up, with Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan threatening
to kick out 100,000 Armenians currently living in the country.

Turkey recalled its ambassador to Washington last month over the House
Foreign Affairs Committee’s decision to label the disputed killings
as genocide. Erdogan yesterday told BBC’s Turkish service:

"There are currently 170,000 Armenians living in our country. Only
70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we are tolerating the
remaining 100,000. If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to
go back to their country because they are not my citizens. I don’t
have to keep them in my country."

Nobel Prize winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk nearly went to jail
for "insulting Turkishness" by making statements about the Armenian
genocide. The charges were dropped after international outcry and
pressure from the EU forced Turkey’s hand.

ANKARA THREATENS TO SEND ILLEGAL ARMENIANS HOME

EurasiaNet
March 17 2010
NY

In a fresh blow to the troubled Turkey-Armenia reconciliation efforts,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to expel
as many as 100,000 Armenian immigrants from Turkey.

Erdogan’s threat has been billed in Armenia as a Turkish response
to recent votes in the US congress and Swedish parliament that
acknowledged the 1915 Ottoman Turkish killings of Armenians as
genocide. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The Turkish prime minister told the British Broadcasting Corp.’s
Turkish Service on March 15 that "if necessary" he would order the
deportation of some 100,000 Armenians who reside in Turkey without
citizenship, Today’s Zaman Newspaper reported.

Erdogan’s warning augurs ill for the international push for
reconciliation between the two neighbors

ENVOY: IRAN READY TO MEDIATE IN KARABAKH DISPUTE

Fars News Agency
March 16 2010
Iran

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian diplomat voiced Tehran’s readiness to
help resolve the territorial dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia
over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

"Iran has announced its readiness to help the crisis in this region,"
the Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan, Mohammad Baqer Bahrami, told
MNA. The ambassador added that Azerbaijan and Armenia have asked
Iran to mediate in the dispute. "The two sides have accepted that
Iran (must) utilize all the potential which exists in the region to
help resolve the crisis in this region," the envoy said. Commenting
on plans to abolish visa requirements for the citizens of Iran and
Azerbaijan, the ambassador pointed out that Azeri officials have
announced that they are preparing the ground to eliminate visa
requirement for Iranians. Earlier in February, Iranian Parliament
Speaker Ali Larijani had said in a meeting with his Azeri counterpart
Ogtay Asadov that Tehran would spare no efforts to help resolve the
territorial dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Larijani suggested
that regional countries could take a collective important step to
help end the long-running dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The
senior lawmaker added that Iran’s strategic policy is to strengthen
peace and security in the Caucasus region.

WILL ERDOGAN VISIT US BEFORE APRIL 24?

Tert.am
11:54 â~@¢ 16.03.10

The two resolutions recently adopted by the US House Committee on
Foreign Affairs and the Swedish parliament (riksdag) have sparked
suspicions whether the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
will go to the US after such a blow to Turkish foreign policy.

"There is an invitation from the US but no visit is planned to the
United States," Erdogan said, while responding to journalists at the
airport before departing for Great Britain.

"You posed the same question to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister
of State Cemil Cicek after the session of the Minister’s Council. He
answered you properly, and my answer now in no way differs [from his
answer]. At this moment we have not planned any visits to the United
States; there is only an invitation," said Erdogan.

Earlier, before the US congressional resolution on Armenian Genocide
was adopted, Turkish media reported that Erdogan is set to visit the
US on April 12. Turkish Deputy Foreign Minster Feridun Sinirlioglu
even left for the US to prepare.

Whether Erdogan will change his mind and go to Washington is anybody’s
guess as he cancelled a similar visit to Stockholm after the Swedish
riksdag adopted a resolution on recognizin Armenian Genocide.

AZERBAIJANI EXPERT: MINSK GROUP FRENCH CO-CHAIR MADE HIS STATEMENT UNDER INFLUENCE OF MULBERRY VODKA
Z. Ahmadov

Today
4045.html
March 15 2010
Azerbaijan

"The statement French co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group voiced in
Yerevan is another "mistake" in favor of Armenia," renowned Azerbaijani
political expert Vafa Guluzade said. He was commenting on Minsk Group
co-chair Bernard Fassier’s statement that Azerbaijan will achieve no
success in case of renewed hostilities with Armenia.

"He has a right to make such a statement neither as a diplomat nor
as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group. Therefore, this statement
shows either his lack of diplomatic skills or he uttered these words
under the influence of alcohol. I think it is because of influence
of mulberry vodka. In fact, he did so in order to return to France as
a hero in the eyes of his Armenian friends," the political expert said.

Answering a question how Fassier’s statement that the updated Madrid
principles contained two principles – territorial integrity and right
of peoples to self-determination at the same time can be interpreted
Guluzade said combination of these two principles makes negotiators
to engage in inefficient activities.

"Taking these principles as a basis, we actually lost the chance for
a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. The same was proposed
at the Lisbon Summit. As you see, it did not lead to any results in
the negotiations."

"Somehow, none of the OSCE Minsk never "made mistakes" in favor of
Azerbaijan. For example, Kazimirov, Fassier or Bryza never said that
Karabakh is Azerbaijani territory and the area cannot be granted
autonomy greater than the one Baku will give to it. The co-chairs
have made all "mistakes" in favor of Armenia. Therefore, the statement
of the French diplomat is in the long list of "mistakes" in favor of
Armenia," Guluzade added.

NA Chairman Hovik Abrahamyan sends a letter of gratitude to his
Swedish counterpart

armradio.am
13.03.2010 12:49

President of the National Assembly of Armenia Hovik sent a letter to
the Speaker of the Swedish Reichstag, Per Westerberg. On Behalf of the
National Assembly of Armenia and himself, Hovik Abrahamyan expressed
gratitude to Swedish parliamentarians for making a true and fair
decision on one of the most tragic pages of human history – the
Armenian Genocide.

`By recognizing the fact of the Armenian Genocide you contribute to
the prevention of reoccurrence of such tragedies and excluding the
inhuman steps against peoples’ destiny in the future.

I think that with this historic decision the Parliament of Sweden
contributes to the establishment of peace in the South Caucasus and
its stable development,’ Hovik Abrahamyan wrote.

Francophonie Month in Armenia

16:58 – 13.03.10

Armenia will celebrate a month of francophonie from March 15 to April
10, when a number of events are planned to be celebrated in the
capital of Yerevan, as well as in the towns of Gyumri, Artik and
Gavar.

Among activities to be organized within this initiative will be an
exhibition, a seminar, literary readings, theatrical performances and
a conference.

>From March 23 to 30, the Naregatsi Art Institute will be presenting a
fairytale festival with the cooperation of the French Embassy in
Armenia. Films on the francophonie will also be shown.

This month of francophonie is supported by the French Embassy in
Armenia and Foreign Ministry of Armenia.

Tert.am

TURKEY RECALLS AMBASSADOR TO SWEDEN FOR CONSULTATIONS

Arab Monitor
.php?idnews=29981&lang=en
March 12 2010

Ankara, 11 March – The Turkish Foreign Ministry recalled its ambassador
to Sweden for consultations following a resolution adopted by the
Swedish Parliament to officially recognize the killings of Armenians
in the last years of the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

Contemporaneously the Turkish government cancelled an upcoming visit
of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Stockholm.

Stockholm’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said he regretted the
resolution voted by the Parliament after members of the majority
teamed up on behalf of the issue with the red-green opposition. The
resolution was passed by just on vote.

THE SWEDISH PARLIAMENT HAS CALLED THE TURKISH PERSECUTION OF ARMENIANS DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR GENOCIDE.

Radio Netherlands
March 12 2010

The resolution was carried with a majority of one vote. Stockholm
has distanced itself from the decision and says its relationship with
Turkey has not changed.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Erdogan has responded by cancelling a
trip to Sweden and recalling the Turkish ambassador.

In Turkey, the Armenian affair was a very sensitive matter. Ankara
admits that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed around 1915,
but says they were not systematically murdered.

Armenians and many historians have been calling the killings genocide
for many years.

Last week, Turkey was furious with the United States after a House
of Representatives committee called the Armenian killings genocide.

Ankara responded by recalling its ambassador.

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION YOUTH MARCH TODAY AT 3 PM

Tert.am
12:14 ~U 12.03.10

A march by youth activists to free all political prisoners in Armenia,
which is held every Friday, will take place at 3 pm today.

Leading up to the march, Armenian National Congress (ANC) activists
released a statement in which they assured the public that "they are
going to resist this guilty administration’s anti-state policies,
they’re not going to retreat, since Serzh Sargsyan, who considers
himself a president, and his administration continue to tyrannize
the will of RA citizens.

"On March 9, the RA Court of Appeal carried out the authorities’
usual order: it ruled for Nikol Pashinyan to be imprisoned for 3 and a
half years. With the ongoing policy related to Nikol, as wll as other
political prisoners, the authorities prove that they are panicked,
and attempt to make serfs out of us, Armenian citizens."