Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

TURKISH DEPUTY WOULD LIKE TO THROW A SHOE AT PRESIDENT GUL THE SAME WAY AN IRAQI JOURNALIST LAST WEEK HURLED A SHOE AT VISITING US PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

ArmInfo
2008-12-22 18:56:00

Turkish President Abdullah Gul released a statement yesterday about
his family’s ethnic origins in response to a Republican People’s Party
(CHP) deputy Canan Aritman’s attempt to link the president’s attitude
toward a recently launched apology campaign for the Armenian killings
at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire in 1915 to his ethnic roots. In
his statement yesterday, Gul announced that his mother’s side, the
Satoglu family from Kayseri, and his father’s side, the Gul family
also from Kayseri, are Muslim and Turkish, according to centuries of
written genealogy records.

According to the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman, as CHP deputy Canan
Aritman who claimed that President Gul’s mother is of Armenian origin,
continued to attack the president in an interview published in the
Milliyet daily yesterday, saying that she would like to throw a shoe
at the president when she sees him in the same way an Iraqi journalist
last week hurled a shoe at visiting US President George W. Bush.

Aritman last week attacked the apology campaign initiated by a group
of intellectuals to apologize for the Armenian massacres of 1915,
which Armenians claim constituted genocide. "The false scientists
signing it should apologize to Turkey," she said.

In his statement Gul said that he respects the ethnic background,
different beliefs and stressed that all Turkish citizens are equal to
one another regardless of any differences. "No one has any superiority
whatsoever over another one. Everybody has the equal and same rights
under the guarantee of our Constitution," the statement reads.

When asked for his opinion on the campaign, Gul said the state’s stance
is to improve relations with its neighbors. "We believe dialogue to
be the solution to problems we have with our neighbors. Perpetuating
problems is not useful to anyone," he said.

"I would toss a shoe and draw attention to this issue," Aritman
said in her interview. "I wouldn’t recommend suing me. They would be
embarrassed. There is no legal basis for such a lawsuit," she said. "If
I do sue the president on charges of supporting incidents that might
lead to an ethnic conflict, that would have a legal basis." She said
she had known about Gul’s alleged Armenian background for a long time,
adding that she should be appreciated for not revealing the information
during Gul’s election campaign.

Responding to Gul’s statement, the deputy said: "I never asked the
president to announce his genealogical background. I just wanted
him to protect his nation and state, the duty assigned to him by the
Constitution." "Why doesn’t the president show the principled stance
shown by the prime minister?" Aritman asked. To recall, Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted harshly to the statement, saying he had
nothing to apologize for.

Azeri captive wants to become citizen of Armenia

armradio.am
20.12.2008 14:14

The Azeri soldier who crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on
October 8 and yielded himself prisoner to the Armenian side declared
that he would like to assume Armenian citizenship. The Azeri captive
stated in an exclusive interview:

`I, Hasanov Rafik Rahman Oghli, was born in 1989 in Yusuvjanli village,
Aghdam region. I currently reside in Seferli village in Aghdam region.

Why did I cross the border? I was humiliated at the 5th battalion of
the brigade #707 located in Ghazakh. I served there for three months,
and then I was glad to be moved to the base station where there would
be nine soldiers and one Officer. I thought the service would be easier
there. However, I was beaten and tortured also at Bazahli base. Unable
to stand it any longer, I decided to shoot at my left foot from the
gun, after which I was taken to hospital. I recovered and returned to
the base station. The commanders continued teasing me comparing me with
a donkey.’

Hasanov applied to Azeri Defense Minister Safar Abiyev, asking to carry
out check-up at the 707 brigade.

The captive said he does not wish to return to Azerbaijan where he is
beaten and humiliated. He added that he is treated well in Armenia.
Hasanov declared he will never return to Azerbaijan and said he is
going to become an Armenian citizen.

`I extended greetings to the President of Armenia and the President of
Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and declare that I was a citizen of Azerbaijan
for 19 years. Now I wish to be a citizen of the Republic of Armenia and
will never return to Azerbaijan,’ Hasanov Rafik Rahman Oghli said.

Christian Union feels Europe¹s support for its draft law
³Penalise the denial of genocide²

Trouw
Dutch daily newspaper

2 December 2008

By Cees van der Laan

The Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) has little sympathy for the idea, but the
Christian Union pushes ahead its draft law for penalising the offending
denial of genocides. The Armenian issue simmers just below the surface.

It has been quiet for a time since Christian Union in 2006 initiated the
draft law for penalising the public denial of genocide. The vehemence of the
debate on Armenian Genocide during the elections of 2006 may have been the
reason of this silence. In addition to that, Christian Union, an advocate of
punishment of genocide denial, and PvdA, an opponent of it, are now
coalition partners in the government. In that circumstances, it would be not
ill-advised to let the issue just cool down.

However, the Christian Union (CU) now feels the support of Europe for going
ahead with its draft law. The European Commission, European Parliament and
the EU ministers of justice, are of the idea that the member states should
make the denial punishable in their respective legislations. On Saturday,
this European Framework Decision was published and now is official. ³A clear
expression of the European attitude², according to Christian Union Member
of Parliament Mr. Joel Voordewind. Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Spain and
Luxemburg already have legislation to punish denial of genocide.

Monday, the CU organises a roundtable discussion in the Parliament on its
draft law. It is a closed meeting so that the members of Parliament, the
invited genocide scholars and the jurists can exchange views freely. Another
reason could be that the Armenian Genocide will also be a subject of
discussion, since the Federation of the Armenian Organisations will also be
present.

This is an exceptionally emotional issue for Turks living in the
Netherlands, since according to most Turks there was no genocide. In 2006,
three Turkish candidates of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the
Labour Party (PvdA) for parliamentary elections, withdrew from the campaign
because they had denied the Armenian Genocide. State Secretary Ms. Albayrak
(Labour Party) thinks that massacres have been perpetrated at the time, but
whether those massacres can be defined as genocide under international law
remains a question for her.

Mr. Voordewind expects to submit officially the draft law to the Parliament
after the hearing. The bill has been amended on some points after the
remarks of the State Council, but the purport remains intact. The coalition
partner, PvdA, however, does not support it. Also, the minister of Justice,
Mr. Hirsch Ballin does not advocate a separate legislation. He supports the
European Framework Decision, but finds that the present legislation already
provides this option. According to him, deniers of the Jewish Holocaust and
other genocides (Srebrenica, Rwanda, Armenians) can be apprehended on the
strength of the present laws criminalizing discrimination and insult.

The CU does not agree with this argument. According to Mr. Voordewind,
falsifying of the facts consciously in combination with hurting, insulting
or discriminating of the victims or their descendants must be a recognised
penal act in itself. Besides, a special legislation will work more
effectively than the present more general provisions of the Criminal Law.

The origin of the draft law lies in a motion by Christian Union back in
2004, which was adopted by the Parliament. In that motion, the Armenian
Genocide was recognised. At the time, the government had no problem with
that. In 2006, the Christian Union submitted the draft law for penalising
the ?negationism¹, i.e. offending denial of crimes against humanity in
general, with up to one year imprisonment or an equivalent pecuniary
punishment. The draft law is not particularly directed to the Armenian
Genocide, but applies to all internationally established genocides.

============

* Note by Abovian Cultural Centre:
The hearing took place on 15 December 2008 and was organised by Christian
Union parliamentary faction, initiator of the draft law, with participation
of Dutch MP¹s, genocide experts, jurists, Centre for Information and
Documentation on Israel (CIDI) and the Federation of Armenian Organisations
of the Netherlands (FAON).

IRAN-ARMENIA SIGN MOU IN VARIOUS FIELDS IN TEHRAN

Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Network 1
Dec 15 2008
Iran

[Presenter] Joint Iran-Armenia commission was held this morning with
the presence of Iran’s foreign minister and the minister of energy
and natural resources of Armenia in Tehran.

[Mottaki] The eighth joint commission of cooperation between the
Islamic Republic of Iran and the Armenian Republic was held yesterday
and today in Tehran. An MOU containing 71 articles incorporating
various areas of cooperation between Iran and Armenia has been prepared
and as you witnessed signed today.

State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan
December 11, 2008 Thursday

SPECIAL HEARING ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT HELD IN BELGIAN SENATE

Baku 11 December

The World Azerbaijanis Congress (WAC) organized a special hearing on
the Nagorno-Karabakh in the Belgian Senate.

Addressing the Senate, WAC chairman Sabir Rustamkhanli spoke about
reasons and historical roots of Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, as well as genocides and terror acts committed by Armenians
against Azerbaijanis and Turks. Rustamkhanly said the international
community still remains indifferent to Armenian crimes. He pointed out
that WAC regularly hold events to raise world community`s awareness
about the fact that Armenia supports terrorism on a governmental
level.

Belgian MPs, politicians from Germany, Russia and Netherlands, as well
as representatives of Azerbaijan and Turkish communities were present
at the event.

VIATCHESLAV IGRUNOV: TURKEY’S RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE UNREALISTIC

PanARMENIAN.Net
12.12.2008 15:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Distancing itself from the United States, Turkey’s
policy has become more practical, a Russian politician said.

"Moscow is extremely interested in normalization of the
Armenian-Turkish relations," Viatcheslav Igrunov, Director of the
International Institute for Humanities and Political Studies, member
of Russian Duma in 1993-2003, told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

This issue demands a sober approach, according to him. "Turkey’s
recognition of the Armenian Genocide is unrealistic, since it implies
return of territories of Western Armenia," he said.

"As to Iran, it’s the key regional power, whose security guarantees
the security of the entire region. Destabilization of Iran is pregnant
with grave consequences," Igrunov said.

3730 UNEMPLOYED REGISTERED IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH

De Facto
Dec 9, 2008

STEPANAKERT, 09.12.08. DE FACTO. 3730 people looking for a job were
registered at the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic employment services by
October 1, 2008.

According to the information DE FACTO received at the NKR Ministry
of Social Security, as compared with the same period of 2007 the
number of the unemployed had increased by 555 people, 491 of which
were from Stepanakert.

Over 90% of the unemployed are women. Most of the unemployed – 2708 –
were registered in capital Stepanakert.

93, 7% of those looking for a job have the status of the
unemployed. 733 people receive an unemployment relief, the amount of
which is 15, 000 AMD.

According to the Ministry’s officials, 161 people were provided
employment by November 1, which is twice more than the same period
of last year.

ARMENIAN FOLK TALE SPELLS OUT THE TERMS OF GRATITUDE
by Amy Friedman

Cape Cod Times
rticle?AID=/20081209/LIFE/812090335/-1/NEWS
Dec 9 2008
MA

Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of six folk tales,
myths and legends drawn from the farthest reaches of the globe.

Long ago there was a man who heaved a carpet bag over his shoulder
and set off on a journey. He had been feeling weak and ill, and he
thought travel would be good for him. As he trudged along, he came to
a spring and saw water bubbling to the surface. He longed for a drink.

A group of women was gathered around the spring, filling their buckets,
and the traveler asked, "Would one of you spare some of that sweet
water to quench a man’s thirst?"

"Go away," one of the women cried, and another echoed her words until
all of the women were shooing him away. All but one.

"Why, shall we not share our water?" she asked her friends, and she
filled her bucket and handed it to the man.

He drank with pleasure, and then he looked at the women again and
asked, "Does anyone have a place for a weary traveler to sleep?"

Again it was the generous woman who offered a corner of her house. She
led the stranger home, and when she introduced him to her husband,
he too welcomed the man. "Our home is yours."

Now the couple was poor, but when they sat down to eat, the man asked
for a big bowl of rice. When he finished the bowl, he asked for more
food — he was very hungry. The woman fed him bowl after bowl, until at
last she had nothing else to feed him. "I’m sorry," she told the man,
"I cannot offer you another bite. We have nothing left."

They all went to sleep, but when the couple awoke the next morning,
the man was gone. When they opened their cupboards, they saw that
they were filled with sacks of rice and flour and beans, along with
buckets of berries and baskets of fruit.

The couple realized they had fed a special traveler. "Our visitor
was a wizard," they said, and they were grateful.

Meanwhile, the wizard continued on his journey. Soon, he passed a
man carrying a bundle of wood. "What are you doing?" the wizard asked.

"Eking out a living," said the poor woodsman. "There’s nothing
more I can do." So the wizard turned the wood into a big, thriving
vineyard. "Tend your vines and prosper!" he cried, and went on his way.

Before long, he came to a man sitting in a grove of dying trees. "What
a fine orchard you have!" he said, and a moment later those dying
trees were thick and leafy and filled with fine, juicy apples.

The wizard cried, "Work and prosper, and long life to you!" Then he
walked on.

Before long, he saw a man carrying a sack of rocks on his back, sweat
pouring down his face. The wizard called out, "Brother, what a fine
flock of sheep you have," and sure enough, that bag of rocks turned
into a flock of fat sheep. "May you prosper," the wizard called as
he journeyed on.

Now the man with the vineyard and the man with the orchard and the
man with the flock of sheep were amazed, but they never gave a second
thought to the stranger.

A year passed, and the wizard, after walking through the land and
offering his gifts to many, decided it was time to return to where
he began his journey. He was well again.

So he turned around and started to retrace his steps. After a few days
he came across the shepherd he had helped, who sat by a fire. He was
roasting a lamb over the coals.

"Could you spare a taste for me?" the wizard asked the shepherd,
but the shepherd squinted up at him and said, "Have you helped me to
tend my flocks? Only those who work deserve to be paid."

The wizard walked on, whispering as he did, and behind him that flock
of sheep turned into a big bag of rocks.

A day later, the wizard came to the orchard, where many men were
picking apples. "Would you spare a bag of apples for a poor man?" he
asked the owner.

"I pay my men and offer no charity to the lazy," the orchard owner
said, and so the wizard walked on, but behind his back that orchard
turned into a field of barren trees.

Now he came to the vineyard, and seeing the field filled with workers,
he stopped to ask if he might pick a bag full of grapes.

The workers shook their heads. "Our master gives nothing away,"
they said sorrowfully, and so the wizard walked on, empty-handed,
but behind him the orchard vanished and in its place the workers saw
only a pile of wood.

And then the wizard reached the house where he had passed a pleasant
night a year before, and when he knocked on the door, the couple
opened it and smiled with delight. "Welcome," they cried, "we are so
glad you have returned. Please, come in and let us treat you. Whatever
you wish!"

The wizard smiled. "You are good people," he said, "and from this
moment on, each night you will find a sack of gold coins in your
cupboard. You will use them well, and you will always be happy."

And with those words the wizard bowed and departed.

THE SETTLEMENT PROCESS YET FAR FROM FINISH-LINE
Lilit Poghosyan

Azat Artsakh Daily
06 Dec 08
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]

So, the session of the Council of the Foreign Ministers of
OSCE member states launched on December 4 in Helsinki and the
"optimistic" predictions to make the regular meeting in Minsk Group
Co-Chairmen-Nalbandyan-Mamedyarov format previewed in the before
mentioned framework historical and crucial, didn’t go beyond "kind
wishes".

Though OSCE Chairman in office Alexander Strub hurried (or maybe hoped
to preview to coming events), to announce that the Helsinki meeting
of the Foreign Ministers of OSCE member states will most probably
be marked by the adoption of the declaration on Nagorno Karabakh,
nothing fatal happened in Helsinki.

The "political and politological" circles that take at face value the
announcements made by Azerbaijani and western officials over again
became confident that not to appear in ridiculous situation it would
be helpful to trust our local authorities as well. In this special case
the conversation is about Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan,
who, in the person of the Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry have
unequivocally refuted the rumors about the adoption of the declaration.

With their joint announcement the representatives of Minsk Group
Co-Chairmen countries, the Russian, French Foreign Ministers and
the US Deputy Secret ary of State one more time enshrined that
"Karabakh Conflict can’t have military settlement and they called
the two parties to make efforts during the coming months "to finish
their work around the main principles of the settlement and later
to set about the elaboration of the bill of a universal peace treaty
based on those principles" they reiterated their loyalty towards the
peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Nothing more.

Thus the Minsk Group reiterated something that was clear, at least
after the last visit of the Co-Chairman: that is to say it is not
possible to record any "breakthrough" in the settlement process, at
least at this refuge. The American Co-Chairman Mathew Brize, by the
way, quite realistically stated this. He said that the regular meeting
in the framework of Minsk Group was far not extraordinary. "It happened
because we all were here and we were expecting a breakthrough".

Of course, this time as well Brize remained loyal to the creation
of a public livelihood around him. Firstly he made the Azerbaijani
journalists happy, by saying that "the peace treaty must start
from territorial integrity because that principle works all over
the world. But the treaty can’t exist without the points about
self-determination."

To which Nalbandyan responded in a very rude manner: "I would like
to think that Brize hasn’t made similar ann ouncement, because it
doesn’t seem to be an announcement made on the level of a Co-Chairman,
but rather a person who is not interested in the right course of
the negotiations, who doesn’t want the negotiations to continue. I
hope he hasn’t made similar announcement, maybe he wanted to say
something else.

The American diplomat "justified" the hopes of the RA Foreign
Minister, as a rule over again refuted himself, saying that he
hasn’t said such a thing. What he really wanted to do was to make
the Azerbaijani journalists understand that while Ilham Aliev insists
on the principle of territorial integrity, Serge Sargsyan insists on
the right of self-determination. And that in this case the settlement
must be based on all the 3 Helsinki principles: territorial integrity,
nations’ right to self-determination and not using force.

It is noteworthy that only one of the before mentioned principals:
territorial integrity matches with Azerbaijan’s aspirations, the
other two: self-determination and not using force comply with the
stance of the Armenian party.

Thus the Helsinki process gave nothing new to the two parties or to
the Co-Chairmen.

The only new thing expressed by the joint announcement made by the
Foreign Ministers of the Co-Chairman countries was the exhortation
addressed to the parties to withdraw the snipers from the conflict zone
as a manifestation of mutual trust, to save the lives of the innocent
people and the soldiers and to establish stable cease-fire regime."

We must underscore that this clause is addressed to Azerbaijan –
if not absolutely at least mainly. Because it is Azerbaijan that
time after time makes provocative actions in Armenian-Azerbaijani
contact line. It is Azerbaijan that stubbornly hinders the efforts
of the international community to hold monitoring linked with the
breaching of the ceasefire. It is Azerbaijan’s President that makes
bellicose announcements recording with pride that Moscow declaration
is far not an obstacle for re-starting military actions.

If we add to all the before mentioned the "autonomous" announcement
made by RF Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying that the Moscow
declaration gave a powerful signal to the settlement process of
Karabakh conflict, then it becomes clear that the Foreign Ministers
of OSCE member states and the Minsk Group Co-Chairmen confessed their
powerlessness in Helsinki to bring closer the diametrically different
approaches of the two sides, around the document enshrining the main
principles, which will be acceptable for the Co-Chairmen as well.

For the simple reason that besides Karabakh status and Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity they are mainly interested in deploying
peacekeeping forces, the before mentioned is simply insolvable because
of Russia-USA rivalry.

And the fact that Karabakh is estranged from Minsk Group process and
as Brize underscored it is not yet known when it will be "formally"
involved in the negotiation format proves that the negotiations are
far from the finish line.

AZERI, ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET IN HELSINKI

Turan News Agency
Dec 3 2008
Azerbaijan

Baku, 3 December: The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia met
the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group – Matthew Bryza (US), Bernard
Fassier (France), and Yuriy Merzlyakov (Russia) – in Helsinki today.

The meeting started in the [Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard]
Nalbandyan – co-chairmen format. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov joined the meeting 20 minutes later.

No statements were made after the meeting ended.