Author: Toneyan Mark

Villagers in south Azerbaijan protest at police abuse, bribery

Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
29 Mar 05

[Presenter] Residents of three villages of Astara [District in
southern Azerbaijan] have protested in front of [the building of] the
executive authorities of the district at the work of the
law-enforcement bodies. They called for an end to pressure from local
law enforcers bodies on residents.

[Correspondent, over video of protesters holding portraits of late
Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev and Azerbaijani flags] About 400
residents of Astara held the protest action outside the building of
the executive authorities. The protesters called for the resignation
of local law enforcers whom they accused of unfair treatment and
procrastination.

[Elder resident, no caption, complaining in loud voice] This is my
son. He was disabled in Karabakh [war]. The court has set him against
my other son.

[Correspondent] Residents of the villages of Kakaluz, Qamisovka [and]
Balaca Sahqaci said that some law enforcers had illegally intervened
in the activities of villagers and entrepreneurs, harassed them and
even raided their homes and searched their homes without any reason.

The chairman of the municipal council of the village of Balaca
Sahqaci, B ahram Aliyev, said that the police searched his home
without any sanction or reason on the holiday of Novruz.

[Bahram Aliyev, chairman of Balaca Sahqaci municipality, captioned,
shown speaking] Neither the head of the executive authorities nor
anyone else can cope with this kind of mafia. They have solid
backing. Whenever you encounter them one would claim having a minister
as his godfather, the other would say that someone else backs him.

[Woman captioned as villager shown speaking] The police must protect
us. They must not subject us to attacks. This is to start with. We
cannot now speak to each other because of the police.

[Passage omitted: recalls the past]

Our complaint is about them taking 1,000 dollars from someone who has
been beaten and 500 dollars from someone else who has not been. They
should take measures in this regard.

[Another protester, no caption, shown speaking] If the police are so
self-confident, let them attack the Armenians and free our nation. Why
don’t they do that?

[Correspondent] The executive authorities of the district pledged to
look into the complaints and to act on them if they happen to be true.

Mahsati Sarif, Ilkin Rzayev for “Son Xabar”

Turkish Press
March 28 2005

Swiss F.M. Due In Turkey

ANKARA – Micheline Calmy-Rey, chief of the Federal Department of
Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, will visit Turkey between March 29th
and 31st upon the invitation of Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul, sources said on Monday.

Calmy-Rey is expected to visit capital Ankara, commercial hub of
Istanbul and southeastern city of Diyarbakir.

Micheline Calmy-Rey is scheduled to meet Gul and be received by
Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

Turkey’s European Union (EU) membership bid, so-called Armenian
genocide allegations, ways of attracting Swiss investors to Turkey
and increasing trade volume and enhancement of relations between the
two countries will be taken up during Calmy-Rey’s talks with Turkish
officials.

During her stay in Turkey, Calmy-Rey will try to eliminate the
negative impact of the resolution adopted by Switzerland two years
ago regarding the so-called Armenian genocide on bilateral relations.

As two countries plan to increase their trade volume of 4 billion
USD, Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen is expected to visit
Switzerland this June. One of the other steps aiming to improve
economic relations will be the visit of Joseph Deiss, former state
minister of Switzerland who is appointed to the ministry for economy.
Deiss is expected to visit Turkey in September. Switzerland is the
sixth country having investments in Turkey.

One of the targets of not only Calmy-Rey’s but also other visits is
to help the two nations and officials to understand each other and
different political systems. In this context, reciprocal visits are
expected to be made between the two parliaments and press organs.

During these meetings, Turkish officials are expected to once more
demand that the PKK be considered as a terrorist network in
Switzerland.

EFFECTS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS

The main development which had a negative impact on Turkish-Swiss
relations is the resolutions adopted by this country regarding the
so-called Armenian genocide.

Bilateral relations between Turkey and Switzerland had become tense
after Vaud canton in Switzerland adopted a resolution acknowledging
the so-called Armenian genocide, and after Calmy-Rey delayed her
visit to Ankara scheduled for October 2003.

Ankara had told Swiss authorities that it would be better if
Calmy-Rey delayed her visit, and paid this visit in a future date.
But, Calmy-Rey, who considered Turkey’s sensitivity as
”exaggerated”, said that they had conveyed their uneasiness about
this incident to Turkish authorities, and added, ”this incident is
not facilitating our bilateral relations which we have established
with patience in recent years.”

After this resolution of Vaud canton, the Swiss Federal Assembly’s
National Council wing also adopted a resolution on the so-called
Armenian genocide. This resolution was strongly condemned by Turkish
Foreign Ministry.

In the meantime, Tages-Anzeiger newspaper published in Zurich wrote a
story in which it claimed that Calmy-Rey’s visit to Ankara was
delayed because a Turkish intelligence officer saw Calmy-Rey talking
with a supporter of the terrorist organization in a reception more
than a minute.

The newspaper also wrote that Turkish intelligence officer informed
the Swiss police about this meeting of the foreign minister, and the
note sent to the Swiss police was later conveyed to then Swiss
President Pascal Couchepin.

Swiss chief prosecutor’s office considered the claim that Turkish
intelligence officer saw that Calmy-Rey talked to a supporter of the
terrorist organization and therefore, Calmy-Rey’s visit to Turkey was
cancelled, as ”bewildering”.

SWITZERLAND’S VIEW

On the other hand, views of Swiss diplomats about the so-called
Armenian genocide are different than the resolutions adopted.

Diplomats working at the department of the Swiss Foreign Ministry
responsible for Turkey stated that ”tragic incidents that occurred
those days could not be classified as genocide”, and said that this
matter should be taken up by the historians.

Stressing that the resolutions adopted by Vaud canton and the
national council ”were not a part of the State policy of
Switzerland”, the same diplomats said that the government was not
influential over the parliament and administration of the cantons
within the framework of the federal system in Switzerland.

Turkish Daily News
Today is Sunday, March 27 2005 2:13 pm GMT+2 updated at 12:00 P.M.

Last week in perspective

Sunday, March 27, 2005

On Friday, March 18, the U.S. Embassy in Ankara said Eric Edelman, the U.S.
ambassador to Turkey, resigned from his post, but the decision was a
personal one and had nothing to do with current troubles besetting
Turkish-U.S. relations.

The United Nations denied it had received an official request from the
Greek Cypriot leadership to restart talks on reunification of the divided
island of Cyprus.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, along with other Cabinet members and
high-ranking military officials, attended a series of ceremonies in
Çanakkale for the 90th anniversary of the 1915 Çanakkale naval victory.

A bill dubbed the ~Sstudent amnesty bill~T went into effect following
approval by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and its publication in the Official
Gazette yesterday, news agencies reported.

Turkish diplomats and officials killed by terrorist attacks while on duty
abroad were commemorated during a ceremony.

Mustafa Sarýgül, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Þiþli mayor,
testified before the party’s Supreme Disciplinary Board (YDK), where he was
charged with violating party bylaws during the CHP’s 13th extraordinary
party congress.

Fifteen people were still buried under the earth after a landslide on
Thursday in the Koyulshisar district of Sivas.

On Saturday, the Motherland Party (ANAP) celebrated the inclusion of
deputies Erkan Mumcu, Mehmet Erdemir, Süleyman Sarýbaþ and Mehmet Sait
Armaðan into their fold.

At the initiative of a Turkish Rotary district governor, Turkish,
Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian Rotary clubs met in Ankara for an
unprecedented joint program titled ~SCaucasus Friendship Days.~T

On Sunday, a powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Japan’s southernmost
main island of Kyushu, killing an elderly woman, injuring up to 400 people
and forcing hundreds to flee their homes.

Turkish officials in their messages on the occasion of the Nevroz Festival
expressed hope that Nevroz, the coming of spring, would bring peace and
happiness.

Ankara articulated that there was neither a direct nor an indirect
connection between the issue of Turkey’s recognition of the so-called
Armenian genocide and Turkey’s accession to the European Union.

CHP Izmir deputy Canan Arýtman submitted a proposal that calls for three
years of imprisonment for those guilty of forcing girls to undergo virginity
tests.

On Monday, approximately 250 people including Leyla Zana, Orhan Doðan,
Selim Sadak and Ahmet Türk, former deputies from the now-defunct Democracy
Party (DEP) attended the Nevroz celebrations in Diyarbakýr held by the
Democratic People’s Party (DEHAP) and the Democracy Platform.

In Mersin, a flag-desecration incident occurred during Nevroz
celebrations. Two children dragged the Turkish flag on the streets of the
city.

Government spokesman and Justice Minister Cemil Çiçek said neither the
present Turkish Penal Code (TCK), nor the new one included any articles that
would allow the retrial of terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK-Kongra-Gel) leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said Turkey should soon sign a
protocol extending its Association Agreement with the EU to the ten new EU
members, including Greek Cyprus.

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Faruk Çelik said
Turkish-American ties would grow to reach a much better stage in the future
and high-level contacts between officials of the two countries can resolve
problems between Turkey and the United States

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül once again dismissed charges
that his government had slowed down reform efforts to gain membership to the
EU, saying membership in the 25-nation bloc remained a top priority.

Greek government spokesman Evangelos Andonaros said 25 members of the EU
expected candidate Turkey to fulfill its obligations before the start of
Turkish accession negotiations with the union.

Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat urged Russia to ease the
isolation of Turkish Cypriots and contribute to a fresh negotiation process
in order to reach a resolution on the decades-long Cyprus dispute.

Turkey called on countries having upheld Armenian allegations of genocide
to take the challenge to prove the validity of the charges and maintained
the debate was manipulated by the powerful Armenian Diaspora.

Hrant Dink, editor in chief of the bilingual (Armenian-Turkish) Agos
weekly, accused the German conservative politician Angela Merkel of using
the issue of so-called Armenian genocide as a tool to score domestic
political goals.

Speaking at a news conference upon his arrival in Istanbul, Ammar
al-Hakim, the second-in-command of the largest Shiite party in Iraq, said
the Iraqi National Council would determine the status of the northern Iraqi
city of Kirkuk.

The Office of the Chief of General Staff said the Turkish Armed Services
was determined to defend the country and its flag to the last drop of blood,
just like its forefathers, warning those who misinterpreted its patience and
aloofness.

Parliament’s Justice Commission approved an amendment proposal to the TCK
that would come into force on April 1.

Members of right-wing lodges staged a protest in Mersin against a
flag-dragging incident on Tuesday, with the group causing disturbances.

Homeland Party (YP) leader Sadettin Tantan said the TCK contained various
gaps creating loopholes that would be used by organized criminal gangs,
terrorist groups and corrupt individuals.

On Wednesday, Veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktaþ criticized the
AKP policy on Cyprus and said his disagreement with the AKP government was
the reason he had decided not to seek a new term as president in upcoming
elections.

Prime Minister Erdoðan justified his government’s pro-settlement stance,
which was publicly attacked by Turkish Cypriot leader Denktaþ.

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, ending a temporary cessation of
remarks opposing Turkey’s EU bid, said that full EU membership was not the
only option for Turkey.

Individuals, groups, political parties, unions, government
representatives, universities and various organizations continued to condemn
the flag-desecration incident in Mersin and rallies were held all around the
nation protesting the incident.

Human Rights Association (IHD) President Yusuf Alataþ said the ugly attack
made on the Turkish flag had upset everybody but noted that it was important
not to exaggerate the matter by getting carried away with such provocations.

Prime Minister Erdoðan filed charges against comic magazine Penguen,
demanding YTL 40,000 in damages for putting his face on an elephant, a
monkey, a frog, a camel, a snake, a cow and a duck on its first page.

On Thursday, Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev resigned from office after
protesters stormed the presidential compound and seized control of the main
seat of state power following clashes with riot police.

The Foreign Ministry said Turkey was closely monitoring the situation of
Turks in Kyrgyzstan after street protests toppled the government there along
with work on a number of safety measures for Turkish citizens, including
possible evacuation.

Top government and military leaders assured Turkey’s Iraq policy was
coordinated among state institutions after a commander criticized the
government for not having a policy on developments in the neighboring
country.

Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos voiced his will to meet with
Turkish Prime Minister Erdoðan to discuss, ~Sthe international aspects of the
Cyprus dispute.~T

Turkish Cypriot leader Denktaþ struck back at remarks made by Turkish
Prime Minister Erdoðan and Foreign Minister Gül for criticizing his attitude
in resolution attempts for the decades-long Cyprus issue, saying that
Turkish governments have so far formed all policies of the Turkish Cypriots.

Professor Justin McCarthy, a renowned U.S. historian who came for a
several-day visit to Turkey at the invitation of the CHP, said the EU was
expecting Turkey’s confession on the so-called Armenian genocide as a
condition for accepting Turkey as a member to the club.

Journalists staged a protest in Ankara on Thursday, with the participation
of twelve different professional bodies, against the new TCK that stipulates
harsher sentences for journalistic misconduct.

The trial of former Prime Minister Mesut Yýlmaz and former Economy
Minister Güneþ Taner at the Supreme State Council continued with the
testimony of witnesses.

The editor in chief of daily Evrensel appeared in court to answer charges
filed by Prime Minister Erdoðan against his newspaper for a report published
covering protests at the SEKA paper mill.

Six independent deputies, led by Bitlis deputy Edip Safter Gaydalý, issued
a statement apologizing to the nation for a recent spate of unfortunate
incidents, including the beating of women by policemen and the dragging of
the Turkish flag on the street.

A moderate earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale shook Bingöl
shortly before midnight leaving seven people injured.

–Boundary_(ID_N/VzB8cgaC81CfC/oOdqWw)–

Teachers from sister city to visit Cambridge

Cambridge Chronicle, MA
March 24 2005

Thursday, March 24, 2005

The Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association, in cooperation with
Project Harmony, invites you to welcome a team of 23 teachers from
Armenia developing online classroom projects with partners throughout
the United States.

A brief video and round-table discussion will be shown
Wednesday, March 30, at 7:30 p.m. at the Holy Trinity Armenian
Apostolic Church of Greater Boston, 145 Brattle St.

Several of the visiting Project Harmony teachers, as well as
several local teachers who have worked with Armenian counterparts,
will discuss their experiences in collaborative projects and share
their visions of what United States and Armenian educators can learn
from each other. Sharyn S. Boornazian, Ph.D., a certification officer
at Lesley University, will moderate.

Since 2000, Vermont-based Project Harmony, which implements the
Armenia School Connectivity Program, has created a network of
computer centers in more than 300 schools throughout Armenia. The
ASCP is a program of the U.S. Department of State Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs.

To RSVP or receive further information, call Suzanne Pearce at
617-354-7648.

India denies its companies operate in occupied region

AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
March 24 2005

India has stated its official position on the press reports saying
that Indian companies are engaged in business activity in the Kalbajar
District of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia.

“No Indian company officially registered in the country is operating
in Kalbajar”, the Indian embassy in Baku said in a recent statement.
Early in February, the Indian government asked Azerbaijan to give it
time to clarify the matter and started investigating it.

Caucasus-Poti ferry line resumes operation after 13-year break

ITAR-TASS News Agency
March 23, 2005 Wednesday

The Caucasus-Poti ferry line resumed operation after a 13-year break.
The first ferry with grain supply for Armenia went on this route on
Wednesday, the press service of the Russian Transport Ministry said.

Only two trial voyages will be made so far, the press service said.
The ferry Annenkov with 18 wagons went on the first voyage. The ferry
will come back with manganese ore supply in five days. The second
voyage with grain supply is scheduled for the beginning of next week.

The agreement on the opening of the ferry line was signed in Tbilisi
on January 10, 2005.

The opening of the ferry communication across the Black Sea and the
Sea of Azov is very important, as the railway communication by land
between Russia and Georgia has been suspended for the last 12 years.
The railway communication has been resumed in August 1992 after the
armed conflict in Abkhazia has started. As a result supplies for
Armenia and Azerbaijan were made on motorways bypassing Georgia that
made the way much longer and the cost of supply much higher. Not only
Georgia and Russia but also Armenia, Azerbaijan and Central Asian
states will use the ferry line.

TURKS GOING TO PROTEST AGAINST EVENTS DEDICATED TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE 90-TH ANNIVERSARY

PanArmenian News
March 23 2005

23.03.2005 04:51

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ All the Turks residing in the US expressed readiness
to participate in the protest action to be held on April 24 in front of
the White House, the rally initiator Ulker Aksu stated. In her words,
500 Turks will arrive in Washington from New York only. The rally
will be organized as a counteraction to the measures undertaken by the
Armenian community of the US and dedicated to the 90-th anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide. Ulker Aksu called the Turks residing in
Europe to hold a protest action against the genocide recognition and
expressed hope for a positive outcome of the action.

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 19 2005

RUSSIAN TRACE IN U.S. ARMS SMUGGLING SCANDAL?

NEW YORK, March 19 (RIA Novosti’s Alexei Berezin) – An arms dealer
arrested this week in the USA claimed that he could buy grenade
launchers in Russia and then ship them over to the United States by
sea, a source in the New York Attorney’s Office told RIA Novosti on
Friday.

Last Tuesday, U.S. authorities arrested members of an international
arms smuggling ring including nationals of Armenia, Georgia, Russia,
Eastern European countries and South Africa. Most of the detainees
resided in the USA, some of them illegally. Law enforcers named
Armenian Artur Solomonyan, 26, as the ringleader.

The authorities charged 18 individuals with conspiring to smuggle
shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile systems, grenade launchers,
mortars and other weapons into the USA.

“In the course of the talks Solomonyan told a potential buyer that
the weapons would be shipped by sea and delivered to the ports of Los
Angeles, New York and Miami. After the two sides have agreed on the
price, quantity and models of weapons the latter were to be delivered
within two months,” the source from the New York Attorney’s Office
told RIA Novosti.

According to him, when the FBI informer who had posed as an arms
buyer said he was willing to purchase 10-15 shoulder-fired grenade
launchers during his first meeting with Solomonyan, the latter
answered that he and his partners were not interested in selling
small shipments of arms but wanted to sell a batch of two thousand
pieces in one go.

The source said that after the first meeting which took place in a
restaurant the two men met again later in a sauna where Solomonyan
said that he was to obtain the grenade launchers from some former and
acting military officers in Chechnya. In subsequent telephone
conversations Solomonyan said that he could get the weapons from
three different and unrelated sources.

The FBI spokesman Andy Arena pointed out at a press conference on
Tuesday that the detainees did not belong to any terrorist
organization.

Each of the suspects is facing charges carrying imminent prison terms
of 5 to 30 years.

IRNA, Iran
March 18 2005

Iranology Center inaugurated in Dagestan University

Moscow, March 18, IRNA-Dagestan on Thursday opened an Iranology
Center at the republic’s state university in a ceremony attended by
several diplomatic and academic officials.

The center was inaugurated by Mehdi Imanipour, the cultural attache
of Iran Embassy in Russia. Also present in the ceremony were the dean
of the university and a number of professors and students of its
Persian Language and Literature Department.

Referring to importance and necessity of development of Iran-Dagestan
cultural ties, Imanipour expressed hope that the Iranology Center
will pave the ground for more interaction between the two nations.

He pointed to the conference on Armenia-Iran Cultural Relations
slated for September-October 2005 in Dagestan capital, adding that
such conferences can help recognize cultural heritage and
commonalities of both countries.

Dagestan State University, with 12 colleges and 6 branches in
different cities of the republic, is one of Russia’s top universities
which has over 20,000 students.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Round Table on Journalism in Post-conflict Countries Held in Russian
Federation
18-03-2005 (UNESCO Moscow)

Journalists and media experts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Poland and
the Russian Federation, including the Chechen Republic, Dagestan and North
Ossetia, met on 13 and 15 March 2005 in Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation,
to discuss the condition of the media in countries in post-conflict
situations in the former Soviet Union, in particular the Caucasus region and
the Chechen Republic.

The question of how to ensure the respect for basic human rights in the
daily work of journalists in post-conflict situations was at the centre of
the discussions that also addressed inter-ethnical relations, challenges of
independent media development, and the possibilities of building on
international experiences to ensure pluralistic and free press in
post-conflict countries.

Link(s) Meeting website
UNESCO and Emergency Assistance to Media
Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations

Contact Tamara Nossenko UNESCO Office in Moscow
Oleg Panfilov, Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations

Field Office(s) UNESCO Office in Moscow

Source UNESCO Moscow

This item can be found in the following topics:
· Azerbaijan
· Russian Federation
· Georgia
· Armenia
· Poland
· Emergency Assistance to Media
· Training of communication professionals

The event that was organized by UNESCO and the Moscow-based `Center for
Journalism in Extreme Situations’, was followed by a training course for
young journalists on legal safety of journalists, essentials of media
coverage in the post-conflict reconstruction process, genres of journalism,
etc.. The training was provided by a team of trainers from the Center for
Journalism in Extreme Situations, Internews, the Faculty of Journalism at
Moscow State University and the Polish newspaper `Gazeta Wyborzca’.

The results of the `Belgrade Conference on Support to Media in Violent
Conflict and Countries in Transition” (Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, 3
May 2004) were presented to the participants of both the round table and the
training course, who welcomed the initiatives of the international community
to support media development in the post conflict reconstruction process.
Contributing a number of suggestions and comments regarding the
possibilities of implementing the Belgrade Declaration in the daily media
work in post-conflict countriesn, participants stressed that citizens are
eager to participate in media development, but that good training programmes
for journalists are still lacking.