Turn to 10.com, RI
March 22 2004

Former Cranston Pastor Faces Embezzlement Charges

CRANSTON, R.I. — A Cranston man faces charges he embezzled money
from his church, News Channel 10 reported.

Megerdich Megerdichian served as pastor of the Holy Cross Armenian
Apostolic Church, in Troy, N.Y., for 16 years. The congregation
removed him in 1998.

Prosecutors said he allegedly stole money and kept it in a secret
bank account.

Megerdichian has pleaded guilty to evading taxes, authorities said.

Phayul, Tibet
March 22 2004

Shoulder to shoulder Armenians and Tibetans band together in
solidarity

WTN[Monday, March 22, 2004 10:37]
By Anna Sarkissian

Armenians and Tibetans, two peoples who “share the same fate,” banded
together last Friday in a gesture of solidarity.

“The noble Tibetan people are also victims of injustice and a
cultural genocide to this day, while the rest of the world looks on,”
said Azad Chichmanian, a member of the Ad Hoc Armenian Committee in
Support of Tibet-China Negotiations. Like Armenia, Tibet is a “small
but proud nation, working hard to gain recognition for crimes against
humanity,” he added.

Chichmanian said that a group of Armenians “saw an opportunity to
contribute in a positive way and help.” The Ad Hoc Committee joined
forces with Armenian student associations from Concordia, McGill and
Université de Montréal to host an information night at UdeM.

“It means so much to the Tibetan community,” said Thubten Samdup,
national president of the Canada-Tibet Committee. “It has been played
up on the Tibetan radio, in the newspapers. We feel like we’re not
alone.”

Addressing the small crowd, Samdup said pressuring the Prime
Minister’s office to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a key
issue. He will be visiting the nation’s capital on April 24, which
happens to coincide with the day Armenians will be commemorating the
Armenian Genocide.

The Canada-Tibet Committee is not asking the federal government to
take a firm position on the matter, but simply to broker dialogue
between the leaders, Samdup said.

“We’re not going to beg for a photo-op with the Dalai Lama, we want
something tangible,” he explained. Human rights are the cornerstone
of Canadian policy, he said, and our nation is in a unique position
to take this leadership role.

For Samdup, it is a matter of preserving Tibet’s identity. “I
definitely don’t want to sit back and be a witness to my culture and
people being wiped out.”

Following the Canada Tibet Connittee president’s address, the Ad Hoc
group encouraged audience members to sign letters for their MPs,
asking them to support Canada-Tibet negotiations. “The message is, we
don’t want this repeated. We’ll stand shoulder to shoulder [with
Tibetans],” Viken Attarian, a member of the Armenian group, said.

As of yet, 137 of 298 members of parliament have signed on and
expressed support for the initiative. Samdup contends that if a
majority of representatives are sympathetic to their cause, Prime
Minister Paul Martin will have to consider taking action. “If China’s
going to listen to anyone, it might be Canada.”

Maranatha Christian Journal
March 22 2004

Scepticism And Optimism
Greet Turkmenistan Decree

( F18News) — Despite a surprise 11 March decree from Turkmenistan
President Saparmurat Niyazov lifting the requirement that a religious
community must have 500 adult citizen members before it can register,
officials have insisted that unregistered religious activity remains
illegal.

Religious believers of the many illegal faiths – including all
Protestant, Armenian Apostolic, Shia Muslim, Jewish, Hare Krishna,
Baha’i and Jehovah’s Witness communities – have been taken by
surprise by an March 11 decree from Turkmenistan’s authoritarian
president Saparmurat Niyazov allowing religious communities to gain
official registration regardless of how many members they have or
what faith they belong to.

Some have told Forum 18 News Service they are optimistic that
conditions will improve, though others – especially from groups that
have regularly suffered fines, beatings and threats – are sceptical.
Under the country’s harsh religion law, communities have previously
needed five hundred adult citizen members (a requirement almost
impossible for religious minorities to achieve), while since last
November unregistered religious activity has been a crime. The new
decree makes no mention of decriminalising unregistered religious
activity.

Bibi Agina, an official of the department that registers social
organisations at the Adalat (Justice) Ministry, told Forum 18 that
the decree does not mean that unregistered religious communities can
start to meet freely in private homes. “As before, religious
communities can only function after they get registration,” she told
Forum 18 from Ashgabad on 12 March. “The decree simply gives
religious communities like the Baptists and others the possibility to
work legally.”

Officials at the government’s Gengeshi (Council) for Religious
Affairs were, as usual, reluctant to talk, putting down the phone
when Forum 18 telephoned. Eventually Forum 18 managed to speak to
Mukhamed (who refused to give his last name), an aide to the deputy
chairman Murad Karriyev, who said the same as Agina that the decree
does not entitle unregistered religious communities to begin to
function. “They still need registration,” he insisted to Forum 18.

Radik Zakirov, a Protestant from Ashgabad, said his community is not
preparing to register under the new decree. But he believed it might
mark a change of policy. “The authorities have tried up till now to
use repressive measures and have understood this is unsuccessful,” he
told Forum 18 on March 12. “They seem now to be trying to bring
religious communities under state control – perhaps a cleverer
policy.”

One immediate welcome for the decree came from Armenia’s Ambassador
to Turkmenistan, Aram Grigorian, who has been seeking the return to
the local Armenian community of their church in the Caspian port city
of Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk), which was confiscated during
the Soviet period. “This is a very progressive decree,” he told Forum
18 from Ashgabad on March 12. “We will try to make use of it.”

The government has not allowed any Armenian Apostolic churches to
reopen or open in Turkmenistan and, if they wish to attend services,
Armenian Apostolic believers are forced to go to the only legal
Christian denomination, the Russian Orthodox Church, although the
Armenian Church is of the Oriental family of Christian Churches, not
the Orthodox.

Vasili Kalin, chairman of the ruling council of the Jehovah’s
Witnesses in Russia, who maintains close ties with fellow believers
in Turkmenistan, was cautiously optimistic over what he regarded as
perhaps the start of a process of improvement. “We welcome the
guarantees of freedom of religion and registration in the decree,” he
told Forum 18 from St Petersburg on 12 March, “but experience teaches
us to look at what happens in practice.” Anatoly Melnik, a Jehovah’s
Witness leader from Kazakhstan with contacts in Turkmenistan, was
more pessimistic over whether the decree will improve life for their
communities, believing the decree might be simply a “propaganda
measure”.

Kalin said their communities in Turkmenistan are ready to register,
but pointed out that several Jehovah’s Witnesses remain in prison for
their faith. “It would be a good gesture that Turkmenistan is ready
to abide by its international human rights commitments if these
innocent people would be freed. We hope to see that soon.” He said
the new decree might be a signal that Turkmenistan is changing “just
as in the Soviet Union when the situation changed”. He pointed out
that moving from illegality in the Soviet Union to a position where
Jehovah’s Witnesses could register their communities took time.

One Protestant, whose church has had numerous problems from the
authorities and has to meet in secret to try to evade state control,
was sceptical about whether the decree would make a lot of
difference. “We know about the decree,” the Protestant – who
preferred not to be identified – told Forum 18. “But are we
optimistic? Not so much.”

A Christian representative outside Turkmenistan with close links in
the country told Forum 18 that “if the decree becomes a reality, it
will be good”. The representative noted that without registration the
church has faced a number of problems, including the impossibility of
acquiring property for services.

Most sceptical were leaders of unregistered Protestant churches.
Viktor Makrousov of the Pentecostal church (who had not yet seen the
decree) and Vladimir Tolmachev of Greater Grace both separately
believed the situation is unlikely to improve on the ground. “Our
main problem has not been the 500 signatures required for
registration – we could achieve that,” Tolmachev told Forum 18 from
Ashgabad on March 12. “The problem is that people signing the
registration application would get problems – they would be sacked
from their work, especially those who are ethnic Turkmens. It is a
problem of people’s safety.”

Niyazov’s decree, reported on state television on 11 March and
published in Russian on the pro-government website turkmenistan.ru,
claims that the country “carries out fully” its commitments under the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights and the Declaration on the Elimination of
All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or
Belief “while securing the harmony of the religious confessions
functioning in Turkmenistan”. In reality, the government has
flagrantly violated these international commitments amid the heaviest
controls on religious life of all the former Soviet republics.

The decree sets out three provisions:

“1. To secure the registration on the territory of Turkmenistan of
religious organisations and groups in accordance with
generally-accepted international norms and procedures.

“2. To register on the territory of Turkmenistan according to
established procedure religious groups of citizens independently of
their number, faith and religion.

“3. The Adalat Ministry of Turkmenistan is to put into effect the
current decree from the day of its publication.”

The decree was published at the same time as a decree ordering the
lifting of exit controls on Turkmenistan’s citizens. Both this and
the denial of religious freedom have been heavily criticised by
foreign governments and human rights activists. Religious believers
within the country are generally too frightened to speak out openly
against the restrictions on their religious activity.

Interfax
March 22 2004

Armenia-Iran pipeline may be extended to Ukraine, EU

Yerevan. (Interfax) – The Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, for which a
construction agreement should be signed in the near future, may be
extended through Georgia to Ukraine and on to the European Union,
Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisyan told Interfax.

He said that the possibility has not been ruled out of laying a
pipeline from Iran through Armenia and Georgia an onwards along the
Black Sea bed to Ukraine. “After the Blue Stream project, the
construction of long marine pipelines is no longer a fantasy,” the
minister said

He said that the supply of gas from Iran to the Ukrainian and
European markets is in line with these countries’ plans to find
access to alternative natural gas supplies.

Iran, Turkmenistan and, above all, the European Union, wants this.
Europe hopes to build a pipeline to its territory through Armenia,
with Iranian and Turkmenistani gas. But this will involve serious and
long negotiations, involving other countries that now receive Russian
gas,” Movsisyan said.

In 2000 the institute VNIPITransgaz developed a feasibility study for
the Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Ukraine-Europe gas pipeline, with an
underwater section of 550 km from the Georgian port of Supsa to the
Crimean city of Feodosia. The Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Ministry
estimated the cost of the project at $5 billion, with gas supply
volume of 60 billion cubic meters per annum, including 10 bcm for
Ukraine.

Armenian Finance and Economics Minister Vardan Khachatryan said
earlier that construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline might
begin by the end of 2003 and be completed within one to two years.

Armenia and Iran signed an intergovernmental agreement in 1995
establishing the route of the pipeline, which stretches 114 km,
including 41 km in Armenia and 100 km in Iran. The agreement also
sets the price for gas to be transported through the pipeline at $84
per 1,000. The cost of the project is estimated at $120 million.

The Iran-Armenia gas pipeline has been on the drawing board since
1992. In addition to the two main participants in the project, other
interested parties include Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, countries
in the European Union, and China. The European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development has said that it is ready to finance
the project.

Interfax
March 22 2004

Armenian GDP up 7.3% in Jan-Feb

Yerevan. (Interfax) – Armenian GDP increased 7.3% to 134.043 million
dram in January-February 2004, a source in the National Statistics
Service told Interfax.

Industrial production fell 5.5% year-on-year in the same period.

Armenia’s foreign trade deficit in the first two months amounted to
$79.8 million. Exports amounted to $84.8 million, with imports of
$164.6 million. Foreign trade turnover amounted to $249.4 million.

GDP in Armenia in 2003 increased 13.9% to 1.618 trillion dram, with
industrial production up 14.9% to 425.3 billion dram.

The official exchange rate on March 19 was 562.67 dram to the dollar.

Zaman, Turkey
March 22 2004

No Islamic World Exists Today

by Nuriye Akman

After five years of living in the U.S. and suffering from poor
health, Fethullah Gulen broke his silence by granting an interview to
Nuriye Akman. Gulen commented on developments in Turkey and around
the world, and answered all the allegations about him. Along with
those subjects, he also explained the meaning of years of
homesickness. Gulen conveyed the traces of his yearning for his
homeland, and remarked, “These last five years have perhaps become
the most painful years of my life.”

As a member of Sabah newspaper, I interviewed Fethullah Gulen 10
years ago in Izmir. This was a turning point. This marked the first
time he was sharing his views with an ‘outsider’ journalist; he was
clarifying about who he was and what he wants to do. 10 years later,
this time in America, I had the chance to interview him as a member
of Zaman. I say ‘I had the chance’ because as all my colleagues, I
was wondering about how he lives in the U.S.; how this lengthy
separation reflected on his feelings and thoughts and when he will
return to Turkey. I had the desire to be the first journalist
reflecting his disclosures. I feel that I am lucky since I had the
chance to witness this expatriation process.

I would like to start with the subject that his followers and
opponents are most curious about: Where and how is he living?

In a small town, he lives in a house owned by his niece located in a
small wood of pine, chestnut, juniper and oak trees. This is place
similar to what Yahya Kemal describes in his poems; a place that
tranquilizes the soul under cool cypresses, away from crazy crowds.
It is where time runs not out but in slowly, cheered every now and
then by visits of Turks who live in America. Flocks of birds in a
hurry leave the sounds of their wings on the rooftop during the day.
The moon and stars in all their grandeur shine in a sky free of light
pollution. There are plenty of squirrels and deer.

But, if you think that Fethullah Gulen takes long walks in the wood
and watches with pleasure how a bubbling brook flows into a small
pond, you are wrong. He leaves his room only for praying and meal
times. Let alone the wood, he had not even taken five steps into the
garden in five years.

All right, but why? From diabetes to heart disease, from high blood
pressure to cholesterol problems, many physical discomforts of course
have a share in it, but, I consider the real answer to be hidden in
his soul. You will find a few hints of this during our interview.

I witnessed how much the health problems, which an ordinary person
would barely stand, wore him out. His condition was fluctuating. Even
though his eyes could not mask his pain, he deemed it impolite to
complain about his pain and he tried to answer my endless questions
in detail. When his doctor felt he [Gulen] could not continue because
of increasing blood pressure, fever, headache and the inability to
utter even a single word, he was demanded a break and sent him to
take a rest. I was angry at myself for pushing him to talk with me
before he had fully recovered from his heart surgery he had a short
while ago; however my professional excitement was dominating and I
was saying, “All right, that will be all for the day, but let’s
continue tomorrow,” and he was replying, “if I do not die.”

Despite the fact he implied that I was pushing the limits, my ego was
unwilling to hear this.

For this reason, I should say that one should not be taken in by the
vigorous posture and rugged clothing in his photos.

I was not before him on an interview appointment anyways. I would
like to thank him for not letting me down even though he felt that it
was not the time to express his thoughts. I happened to attend a pep
talk he was giving his guests on a day when he was feeling good. I
listened to him in a pep talk for the first time. It was a
multilayered talk blended with Sufism, history, geography, politics
and literature. It was addressed both to the hearts and minds, in
which audience could broaden their circle of awareness to the extent
of their intellectual accumulations. I think he was able to talk so
fluently because he was able to curb his bewilderment on the inside
that was caused by his being wronged.

When I requested to see his room, I was not rejected. A twin size bed
was covered with a bedspread stitched with simple colorful fabric
pieces. A treadmill was in the corner. All the things in the room
were nothing but the presents with symbolic values. Soil saved in
jars or some in plastic bags from different regions of Turkey was for
pacifying the yearning for his homeland.

It’s been five years since you came to America, has it not?

On March 22 (today), it will be five years.

How was Fethullah Gulen Hodjaefendi five years ago and how he is
today?

Such a long time has passed and naturally it has had an influence on
me. As of my character, I cannot say that I changed a great deal.
However, I have seen different things, heard different things.
Sometimes, I had been lowered into gayyas, [a well in hell]. I kept
quiet.

These five years perhaps were the most painful years of my life. I
had been subjected to a similar unjust scrutiny as well for nearly
six years. In the end, the verdict was annulment of the charge. It
could be said that, since May 27 some repeatedly pushed the button,
whether or not I know the reasons, and some took action. I am 66
years old; almost since I was 20 my life has been like this. This was
the most painful of all. Because, in a way I am oversensitive. I am
so sensitive to the extent of hysteria. I feel I am being disloyal if
I do not return to a place where I had a cup of coffee. In the same
way I feel I am being disloyal to a road previously taken if I do not
take it again. There is soil in my room from 50 different areas of
Turkey. They are being preserved, as if it is the soil of Kabah. I
look at them and find consolation in them. But, on the other hand, I
endure like pressing a piece of red hot coal into my chest and
squeeze my teeth not to provoke some.

What did this period bring to you and take from you? How did it
affect your health and psychology?

There are two sides to every story. I came here for treatment mostly.
There is Mr. Sadi in the Mayo Clinic, he is a Crimean. He went back
and forth to Turkey. They came with a delegation of the executive
board. They wanted to run a check up on me. The other side of the
issue is that there was pressure. Gossip was going on and on. On one
side, there were pleasant things, like taking tolerance to higher
places in Turkey, of the people respecting their positions and even
more so, of it becoming a culture. On the other hand, some were
disturbed a great deal for some reason. My heart was in fairly poor
condition. My diabetes was increasing. Even my cholesterol could not
be controlled. I came to the Mayo Clinic. My intention was to stay
there a few days and then return. A few days turned out to be a few
months. Based on these incidents, they said returning would be
harmful for my health. I tried to be under treatment on one side. I
had osteoporosis. I often went to hospitals for my heart condition. I
went to the hospitals 20 times. I did not go any place except
hospitals. I got sicker here, partly from sadness, partly from
distress. These were the places where the newspaper failed to reach
and I failed to listen to radio. I felt as if I was a little more
comfortable here. I was released from the happenings around me.
However, the yearning for Turkey was burning me inside.

No Islamic World but Individual Islam

Islamic section sat aside for years saying, ‘Islam does not accord
with terror”. However, the incidents of September 11 occurred. In the
aftermath, bombings took place in many countries, including Turkey.
It was discovered that the perpetrators came from among us. Before
everything else, it is it not necessary for us to rebel?

You are so right. Today, Islam is misunderstood at best. Muslims
should say, “In real Islam, terror does not exist.” Because, in
Islam, killing a human is equal to qufr [not believing Allah]. You
cannot kill a human being. You cannot touch the innocent, even in
war. No one can give fatwa (a legal pronouncement in Islam, issued by
a religious law specialist, on a specific issue) on this subject. No
one can be a suicide bomber. No one can rush into crowds with bombs
tied to his body. Regardless of the religion of these crowds, it is
not religiously permissible. Even in the event of war – in which
balances are not kept much- , this is not permitted. It is told, “Do
not touch children, people who worship at churches.” It is not only
once that it is said, but over and over again. What Our Master [The
Prophet Muhammed] said, Ebu Bekir said, and what Ebu Bekir said, Omer
said, and what he said, in later times, Salahaddin Eyubi, Alparslan,
Kilicarslan also said. Fatih [Mehmet The Conqueror] said the same.
Thus Constantinople, where a disorderly hullabaloo was experienced,
had become Istanbul. That means neither Greek did anything to
Armenian, nor Armenian did anything to Greek. Muslims too did not do
anything to them. After the conquest of Istanbul, there was a huge
Fatih poster in the Patriarchate. It had been made at that time.
Fatih summoned the Patriarch then and gave him the key. They
[Patriarchate] remember him in respect. Now, as in everything else,
there is lack of understanding Islam, which has always respected
different ideas.

I should say this regretfully that in the Islamic World, some hodjas
and immature Muslims have no other weapons to use. Islam is a just
religion, it should be lived justly. It is definitely not right
either to use a futile pretext on the way to Islam. As the target is
required to be just, all the means to reach that target should be
just as well. Within this perspective, one cannot go to heaven by
killing another. A Muslim cannot say, “I will kill a man and then go
to heaven.” Acceptance of the will of Allah cannot be earned by
killing men. Of the most important goals of a Muslim, one is to earn
acceptance of God’s will and the other is to make the Almighty name
of Allah known to universe.

Is this how their logic works; war used to fought on the fronts. But
now, everywhere is a battle ground. Thus, do they accept this as a
war as well? Do they think that a gate for them will be opened to go
to heaven from this angle?

Rules of Islam are obvious. Individuals cannot declare war. Neither a
group nor an organization cannot declare a war. War is declared by
the state. You cannot declare a war without a president or an army
saying that it is war. Otherwise, it becomes a relative war. One
forms a war front by gathering, forgive my language, a few plunderers
around him. One other takes the others. Think about Turkey. There are
strong minded people. A front could be formed even because of their
differences. Some could say, “I declare war against such and such.” A
person tolerant to Christianity could be told, “He helps
Christianity, and weakens Islam. A war against him should be declared
and he must be killed,” then a war is declared. This is not so easy.
If the state does not declare a war, one cannot wage war. Whoever
does it, even if the scientists I like much, it is not true war,
because it is against the spirit of Islam. The rules of peace and war
in Islam are determined.

If it is against the spirit of Islam, then why is the Islamic World
like so?

In my opinion, there is no such world as the Islamic world. There are
places where Muslims live. They are many in some places and few in
others. That is Islamic culture. There are Muslims who restructured
Islam in accordance with their thoughts. I do not refer to
radicalism, extremist Muslims. Requirement is that one should justly
believe, and apply justification to these beliefs; Islam should be
owned. It cannot be said that in Islamic geography no such societies
with this concept and philosophy exist. If we say otherwise, then we
slander Islam. If we say Islam does not exist, then we slander
humans. I do not lightly consider the contribution of Muslims to the
balance of the world. I do not see that logic with administrators.
The Islamic World is pretty ignorant, despite an enlightenment in
measures that is coming into existence nowadays. We can observe this
in Hajj. You can see this in their conferences and panels. You can
see this in their parliaments through television. There is a serious
inequality in the subject matter. They cannot solve the problems of
the world. Perhaps, it could be achieved in the future.

You mean then, that the term “Islamic World” should not be used?

No such world exists. There is individual Islam. There are some
Muslims in different places around the world. Piece by piece, broken.
I personally do not see the prosperous existence of Muslims. If
Muslims, who will be in contact with the others and constitute a
union, solve common problems, interpret the universe, read it really
well, consider the universe carefully with the Koran, read the future
very well, generate projects for the future, determine its place for
the future, do not exist, I do not call it Islamic World. Since there
is no such Islamic World, every one does something according to
him/her self. It could even be said that there are Muslims with their
own truth on behalf of Islam. It cannot be said that an Islamic
concept reached consensus by itself; rather great Islamic scholars
reach a consensus on a subject, bound by a strong Koran
interpretation, and it is tested many times. It could be said that an
Islamic culture is dominant.

Perhaps, it has been always like that. And it will continue to be as
such until the end of the world.

It has been so after the 5th A.H. It started with the Abbasid Era or
with the appearance of the Seljuks. It started more so after the
Conquest of Istanbul. This is a period that is the will of Allah for
us. In the following periods, doors to new interpretations were
closed. Horizons of thought were narrowed. Wideness in the soul of
Islam was narrowed. More unscrupulous people are started to be seen
in Islamic world. People who are touchy. People who cannot accept
others. People who cannot open themselves to everyone. This
narrowness was experienced in dervish lodges. It is so sad that it
was even experienced in madrasas [schools of theology]. And of
course, all of these require revision and renovation by great people
in their fields.

You think maybe their abolishment was for better.

Abolishment was the punishment of Allah for them.

Fethullah Gulen struggles with serious health conditions. While he
was answering Nuriye Akman’s questions, he got sick from time to
time, and all his pain was reflected in his face. There were pauses
where he felt that he could not continue with the interview. He
mentioned that he satiates the yearning for his homeland by viewing
the soil brought from 50 different regions in Turkey; he does not
consider it is time to go back to Turkey just yet. When he is asked
about the reason, he says: “My treatment continues. I do not want to
stir anything up with my return.”

How France Defines Terrorism
MensNewsDaily
March 21, 2004

by Bruce Walker

Dominique de Villepin, Foreign Minister of Vichy French, after
President Bush reminded the world that Iraq was much happier without
Saddam Hussein, sniped that there was more terrorism in Iraq now than
before the war of liberation.

The problem, of course, is how Villepin and the government of Vichy
France defines “terrorism.”

Nations, according to the Vichy mentality, cannot break laws or commit
terrorism. This thinking allowed Vichy France to collaborate without
remorse in the Holocaust. Hitler had a regime that was scrupulously
legalistic in many ways.

As one example, in the first election after the Enabling Act, the
National Socialist German Workers Party did not win a majority of
seats in the Reichstag.

Nazis did terrible deeds which violated established international law
or German criminal law but the truly ghastly crimes of Nazism were
committed in violation of moral law, not specific prohibitions of
national or international law.

Indeed, perhaps the most grim fact to concede in prosecutions made for
the Holocaust was that no similar prosecutions were made for the
identical crime of the Armenian Holocaust twenty-five years earlier.

France, pointedly, was the greatest land power in Europe after the
Great War.

It had the military power to punish Turkey for the systematic
extermination of 1.5 million Armenian Christians in the First
Holocaust. The legalistic statism of Vichy thinking refused to condemn
the torture, murder and outraging of the Armenians.

When Arnold Wegner, who from Christian conscience recorded in
photographs the First Holocaust, begged Hitler not to do to Jews what
Turks had done to Armenians, Hitler’s famous response was “Who, today,
thinks of the Armenians?” The official predecessors of Villepin did
not think of the Armenians in 1919.

There were no Nuremberg Trials for the First Holocaust.

If we consider democidal campaigns of monsters who lead governments,
then what sort of terrorism has occurred by these heads of political
parties, governments or ideologies? Evil governments unmolested by
external champions of goodness have been the primary terrorists of the
Twentieth Century.

Communism in peacetime – not in war or in civil war – murdered almost
100 million people who lived within its noxious realm in the last
century. That exceeds all the victims of wars and of other holocausts
and democides combined.

About 20 million people were murdered by odious regimes like Hitler
and Hussein.

This compares with 29 million people murdered in wars, excluding civil
wars.

Almost 6 million people, the equivalent of the Holocaust’s Jewish
victims, died in civil wars which, by definition, is a war to
determine who is the government of a region.

When murder by a government against its subjects is considered
“terrorism” then does Iraq have more terrorism or less terrorism after
Operation Iraqi Freedom? There is much less terrorism, if we reject
the Vichy French notionthat families gassed at Auschwitz are not
victims of terrorism while German soldiers strafed by P-47
Thunderbolts in the campaign to liberate France were victims of
terrorism.

Saddam Hussein killed in so many different ways that it is difficult
to fully grasp the extent of his murders. Some mass graves contain
tens of thousands of dead men, women and children. Some of these Babi
Yar sites – referring to one of the most infamous field exterminations
of innocent Jews by Nazis in the Soviet Union – were known to us
beforehand and some were not.

The gassing of Kurds, the wholesale destruction of Shia, and the
decimation of the Baathist Party itself produce mind-boggling
numbers. Based upon whatwe know now but did not know before Operation
Iraqi Freedom, a very conservative estimate would be that the
terrorism of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist butchers murdered at
least five hundred people each day.

That excludes factors that might well be considered simple murder. The
aggressive war against Iran claimed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi
lives asdid the invasion of Kuwait. The misuse of the “Oil for Food”
program appears likelyto have claimed another hundred thousand or so
Iraqi children. But let us forget this dead and consider only those
who are victims of the Baathist Holocaust.

More people were murdered each day by the Baathist Party in Bagdad
than on the worst day of killing since Operation Iraqi Freedom began,
and that includes the combat deaths of Baathist Party supporters and
of innocent Iraqis. The terrorism of monstrous governments like the
Baathist Party, the Communist Party and the Nazi Party are modern
terrorism.

Organized democide, whether at Tikrit, Trezibond or Treblinka, dwarfs
what pikers like bin Ladin can accomplish. Perhaps Vichy Foreign
Minister Villepin cannot see this because he comes from the nation
whose revolutionary government gave humanity “The Terror” and which
inspired Lenin, Hitler and Mao to match the French bloodbath of
terrorist government. This worst sort of terrorism is precisely what
collaborators like Villepin never see – and never wish to see.

Bruce Walker

Bruce Walker writes regular, orginal, weekly columns for Enter Stage
Right and Conservative Truth. His articles have also appeared in a
variety of print and electronic periodicals, including Christian
Science Monitor, Oklahoma Bar Journal, Law and Order, Legal Secretary
Today, and The Docket. Bruce also wrote a regular column for several
years entitled “Law and You” for The Single Parent, the national
journal of Parents Without Partners. His professional career includes
five years as Executive Director of the Oklahoma District Attorneys
Association, three years as Administrator of the Oklahoma Child
Support Enforcement Program, and six years as Managing Attorney of the
Tulsa Child Support Office.

Published Monday, March 22, 2004
W. Haven’s Berto Drops Close Fight

By DURWARD BUCK
Ledger Correspondent

Winter Haven welterweight boxer Andre “Mike” Berto had to settle for
silver Saturday night.

Fighting as a member of the Haitian national team, Berto lost a close
decision to United States team fighter Vanes Martirosyan for the
152-pound title at the Americas Regional Olympic Qualifier in Tijuana,
Mexico.

The judges scored it 24-21.

“It was kind of an anti-climatic thing,” said Winter Haven
trainer-coach Tony Morgan. “Mike already knew he had won a spot in the
Olympic games, and I don’t know how much he was up to it.”

Martirosyan had lost to Berto in the USA Team Trials in February, but
the decision was erased by a ruling on an earlier fight.

Berto has lived and trained in the United States and was fighting for
Haiti because his parents are from Haiti. Ironically, Martirosyan had
lived most of his life in Armenia and moved to the U.S. with his
family as a young boxer.

“We’re looking to meeting him again,” Morgan said. “Only this time, it
will be in Athens.”

Under the regional qualifying rules, the top two boxers advanced to
the August Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

“There were some walkovers in the finals,” Morgan said. “People just
didn’t fight because they didn’t have anything to prove.

“But Mike wanted to fight for the experience and for pride.”

Morgan said he knew the decision was going to be close. “A lot of the
people there thought it was a bid decision. I know how fight judging
can be, so I was ready to accept whatever they said.”

Berto was the only member of a six-fighter Haitian team to qualify for
the Olympics. The other five could still earn a trip to Greece at
another regional qualifier in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, beginning April
4. Eight members of the United States team advanced to the Olympic
Games.

“We had talked some about going to Rio, but now we won’t have to,”
Morgan said.

The welterweight bout was an active one, as indicated by the high
score.

“The other kid held a lot, and we took our medicine,” said Morgan,
also the trainer-manager of the Winter Haven Police Athletic League
team.

The first round was even, according to Morgan.

“It was very intense after that. Mike won the second round and Vanes
won the third. I believe Vanes was ahead by three points after three
rounds.”

A hard-punching boxer, Berto had dominated two early opponents in the
regionals. “He hurt everybody he fought,” Morgan said. “Nobody hurt
him.”

Berto’s plans are to take a day or two off. He was scheduled to return
to Winter Haven today.

“We’ll start trailing with some light workouts and roadwork, and then
work harder for about a month or so,” Morgan said.

“Then, we’ll go into intense training for the Olympics.”

Global Report X-rays Corruption in Nigeria
By Etim Imisim

This Day News, Nigeria

Transparency International (TI) will on Thursday, March 25 launch its
“Global Corruption Report 2004” at Terrace Court in London.

Global anti-corruption watchdog TI is also presenting its National
Integrity Index (NIS), which will x-ray and probe governance issues in
Nigeria and 24 other countries. The second in the series of country
studies, the NIS covers 2002-4. The focus is political corruption.

Other countries covered are Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, India,
Jamaica, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique and New
Zealand. Other are Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, South
Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, The Gambia, Uganda, United Kingdom,
Zambia and Zimbabwe. A composite study is being done of the Caribbean.

The Dutch government funded the first series of TI NIS country
studies, which focused on 2001. TI worked then with the Fraud
Management Studies Unit of the University of Teesside, Liverpool. The
subsequent series of 25 country studies is being funded by the British
Government’s Department For International Development.

TI’s previous country probes have never been flattering to
Nigeria. The last ratings and earlier ones declared the country the
second most corrupt nation on Planet Earth, which the authorities
dispute.

But last week visiting World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, cited
TI’s Nigerian corruption score when he indicted the nation for doing
too little to fight corruption.

The bank holds corruption responsible for political instability. It
believes no meaningful development is possible in a country where
corruption is as pervasive as it says it has discovered in Nigeria.

Azeris sceptical about Armenian claims to Naxcivan – paper

Ekho, Baku
17 Mar 04

Text of R. Orucov’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekho on 17 March
headlined “Armenia again encroaches on Naxcivan”

The Union of Armenian Writers [UAW] intends to raise in the parliament
of that country the issue of declaring void the 1921 Russian-Turkish
treaty, which secured the cession of “Kars and some other Armenian
territories to Turkey, and of Naxcivan to Azerbaijan”. According to
the Armenian newspaper Azg, these statements were made at a meeting of
representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia, which was organized by
the UAW at the Armenian government session chamber.

According to UAW Chairman Levon Ananyan, one of the main objectives of
the meeting was to “prevent the aforementioned treaty from sinking
into oblivion”. He noted that the Russian-Turkish treaty “On
friendship and fraternity” dated 1921 was conducive to “extirpation of
Armenians in this region”. Ananyan said that the UAW was making
preparations for filing an appeal with the National Assembly of
Armenia that it should request the Russian State Duma to render the
treaty void. The head of the UAW underscored that “we have to put the
issues of Karabakh and Naxcivan at the same level”. In addition,
Ananyan claims that resolving this issue is “as important as it was 83
years ago”.

In Azerbaijan attitudes towards the UAW plans are sceptical. “The
Armenians always say what they want and what is advantageous to them,”
doctor of international law Rustam Mammadov said in a conversation
with Ekho. “First, they should not forget that two treaties were
sealed on 16 March 1921 simultaneously, the Russian-Turkish and
Armenian-Azerbaijani-Georgian ones. The second treaty reiterated the
same provisions as in the Russian-Turkish one. And separate clauses
were dedicated to the issue of Naxcivan in both treaties. It was
established that Naxcivan was a constituent part of Azerbaijan. In
fact, it was precisely because of this provision that the Turks agreed
to sign the peace treaty.” Second, Mammadov said, in this treaty
Soviet Russia guaranteed Naxcivan’s security and its being part of
Azerbaijan. It is effectively impossible to denounce this treaty now,
the expert said. “Because this document was not signed by the
modern-day Russian Federation. Even the Soviet Union did not exist at
the moment of its signing. The modern-day Russia, in turn, was created
as a result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.” The most
important thing is that the Armenian side has no grounds to declare
separation of Naxcivan from Azerbaijan “because in 1921 Armenia signed
the trilateral agreement recognizing Naxcivan as part of
Azerbaijan. There is also an addendum to the treaty specifically
devoted to the status of Naxcivan. And it is too signed by Armenia,”
Rustam Mammadov emphasized.

As to the possibility of the Armenian National Assembly requesting the
Russian State Duma to annul the Russian-Turkish treaty of 1921, this
option is not considered as serious by the Russian diplomats either.
Commenting on this issue for Ekho, press attache of the embassy of the
Russian Federation in Baku Gennadiy Yevsyukov said that “there have
not yet been such precedents in the post-Soviet area. Therefore we, as
serious diplomats, find it hard to analyse hypothetical steps of
non-government organizations with respect to the regulatory and legal
framework of the early 20th century. Personally, I would not undertake
to get into discussions on revision of the regulatory and legal
framework of our historical past,” the diplomat said.

In turn, deputy executive secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party
Bahar Muradova told Ekho that the voiced claims had to be viewed as
the continuation of the notorious Armenian expansionist policies. “It
also implies that even if Armenia, through international structures,
officially renounces its claims to our occupied territories tomorrow,
this does not mean that it will have given up the idea of
appropriating Azerbaijani or Turkish lands. I think that both the
government of our country and the international community should pay
close attention to this matter.” Muradova does not think that the
request to the State Duma of the Russian Federation will lead to the
results that the Armenians desire. She is confident that the Russian
State Duma will not take steps that could jeopardize Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity.

Submitted by Janoyan Ana