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Kurdish rebels deny reports on Turkey withdrawal were “lies” and part of a “psychological war”

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January 31, 2013 – 14:02 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – A Kurdish militant group said on Thursday, Jan 31, media reports about the withdrawal of its fighters from Turkey under a peace process to end a 28-year-old insurgency were “lies” and part of a “psychological war”, Reuters reported.

Turkish intelligence officials began peace talks with the jailed leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) late last year and a recent report said its guerrillas would withdraw to northern Iraq by the Kurdish new year on March 21.

Armenia’s Goris city to become international travel destination

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January 31, 2013 – 15:21 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Located in the east of Armenia’s Syunik province, Goris city will grow into an international travel destination. Armenian government approved the tourism development plan on Jan 31, with the expenses to be included in 2014-2016 medium-term program.

As an active center of international transit routes for Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh Republic and Iran, the town has best opportunities to become a tourist destination.

The program envisages establishment of Old Goris historical complex, with the favorable climate enabling for development of recreational and adventure tourism.

The program aims to foster the integration of Goris into international and local tourism market, which will, in turn, boost the cultural life of the city, job creation and tourist flows.

Located in the valley of river Goris, it is 254 km away from the Armenian capital Yerevan and 67 km from the provincial center Kapan. Goris is an urban community and the 2nd largest city in Syunik province. The National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia reported its population was 23,022 in 2010, down from 23,261 in 2001.

Armenia is regional leader by press freedom index

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18:43, 30 January, 2013

YEREVAN, JANUARY 30, ARMENPRESS: “Reporters without borders” organization has published 2013 world press freedom index according to which Armenia has improved its positions. As reports Armenpress, referring to official web site of “Reporters without borders” organization, in accordance with data, Armenian is 74th from 179 countries by its press freedom index.

With its index Armenia is the leading country in the region. Turkey is on 154th place, Azerbaijan is 156th and Georgia concluded top 100.
“Reporters without borders” organization mainly noted in its message “After the “Arab springs” and other protest movements that prompted many rises and falls in last year’s index, the 2013 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index marks a return to a more usual configuration. The ranking of most countries is no longer attributable to dramatic political developments. This year’s index is a better reflection of the attitudes and intentions of governments towards media freedom in the medium or long term. Azerbaijan fell last year after using violence to suppress opposition demonstrations and this year they just moved back towards their appalling former positions.

AI urges investigation into attacks on Armenians in Istanbul

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January 30, 2013 – 13:44 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Amnesty International calls on the Turkish authorities to carry out a prompt, thorough and impartial investigation into the series of attacks on elderly Armenian women in Istanbul.

In the last two months, four attacks, one of them fatal, took place in Samatya an area historically inhabited by Armenians in central Istanbul. All four women are Turkish citizens of Armenian origin.

“The Turkish authorities have an obligation to investigate any alleged racist and/or religious bias behind the perpetration of these crimes. A failure to do so may amount to a violation of the European Convention of Human Rights, ratified by Turkey, and the prohibition of discrimination set forth by it.

Hate crimes constitute a serious form of discrimination. State authorities have not only to refrain from discriminating themselves but also exercise due diligence to prevent and combat discrimination from private parties.

It is regrettable that Turkish legislation does not foresee any legislative and policy measures ensuring that hate motives are systematically and thoroughly investigated and duly taken into account in the prosecution and sentencing.

Police insist that they are investigating the cases thoroughly. However, Amnesty International is concerned at public statements made by the authorities discounting the possibility of a racist motivation to the attacks,” AI statement said.

Design selected for Armenian genocide memorial in Pasadena

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The winning design for a public memorial in Pasadena commemorating the Armenian genocide was announced Tuesday, says an article in Los Angeles Times.

The design by Catherine Menard – a student at the Art Center College of Design, which submitted the concept to the Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial Committee for consideration – was praised as an “an emotionally compelling design” that would serve to “inspire a similar emotional connection in those who encounter it, for generations to come,” according to an announcement issued Tuesday.

The central feature of Menard’s design — a carved-stone basin of water straddled by a tripod arrangement of three columns leaning into one another — is a single drop of water that falls from the highest point every three seconds, each “teardrop” representing one life lost, according to the college.

A rendering of the winning design was not immediately available.

Over the course of one year, 1.5 million “tears” will fall into the pool, representing the estimated number of people who died during the Armenian genocide of 1915 to 1918, which occurred under the Ottoman Empire, or what is now the modern republic of Turkey.

The Turkish government disputes that a genocide occurred, claiming the victims were killed in the chaos of World War I.

The project is slated for Memorial Park in Pasadena and is expected to be completed by April 24, 2015, the 100th anniversary for commemorations of the genocide.

Menard, a 26-year-old of French Cajun heritage who is majoring in environmental design at the college, had to first immerse herself in the brutal history of the Armenian people to come up with concept.

In a statement, Menard said the research process was engrossing and inspirational.

“At first I felt unworthy — who am I to respond to such loss?” she said. “But art lends itself to the deepest, darkest parts of human experience. It can create sympathy, empathy, understanding. I wanted to pair this horror with something uplifting and beautiful, to create a way to remember.

“I developed three different ideas and settled on the one that I felt most terrified and most moved by.”

Senior Iranian cleric to Turkish authorities: Our entire nation feels disgust for you

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I wonder how a nation can be hostile to all of its neighbors, Iran’s news agency Mehr quoted Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi as saying today during a gathering at a mosque in the Iranian city of Ghom.

Referring to Turkey’s policy to its neighbors, particularly Syria, Naser Makarem Shirazi said, in part, “The Turkish authorities have turned off 180 degrees from the path of Islam. They arm terrorists and send them to Syria to kill their Muslim brothers.”

Addressing the Turkish authorities, Naser Makarem Shirazi said, “State relations have nothing to do with us, but we announce that our entire nation feels disgust for you.”

“I wonder how a state can be hostile to all of its neighbors. What logic is this? Recently Turkey has also had disagreements with Iraq and Russia,” the senior Iranian cleric added.

 

Remzi Kartal: Kurds Suspicious About Turkish Statements over Paris Killings

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By: Rudaw.net

Remzi Kartal

PARIS, France – Exiled Kurdish leader Remzi Kartal, a former MP who continues to play an active role in Kurdish politics, says that the Kurds have doubts about the Turkish government’s sincerity in peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers Party, since Turkish officials blamed the assassination of three Kurdish women on an internal PKK feud.

Kartal, who is currently the leader of the People’s Congress of Kurdistan (Kongra-Gel), was an active politician in Turkey until he fled the country in 1994 after several of his colleagues were arrested and imprisoned by the Turkish authorities.  Since 2003, when Kongra-Gel was listed as a terrorist organization by the UN and the European Union, Kartal has faced frequent arrests in Europe. In April 2011, the US Department of Treasury designated Kartal and four other Kurds as drug traffickers. Despite US and Turkish pressure, Kartal was never extradited to Turkey. He spoke to Rudaw in Paris, as thousands of angry demonstrators demanded justice over the three Kurdish women found shot dead.

Rudaw: Do you think this assassination will affect the peace talks?

Remzi Kartal: The peace talks have been led directly by our leader Abdullah Ocalan, as he is the main actor in this. It will be up to him to decide how to proceed. It would not be right to comment on this issue now.

Rudaw: But Kurds are now very angry and some of them call for revenge.

Remzi Kartal: This is a very natural response. The killings have three dimensions: gender, social and national. These three women were fighting for solving the women’s issue, as well as the social and national issues.  This means that we want to succeed in the women’s liberation struggle, as well as in national and social liberation.  We will continue to fulfill their aims. In this sense, to seek revenge means to overcome the system that is denying the Kurdish rights and is oppressing our people.

Rudaw: Do you know if Sakine Cansiz, one of the three women killed in Paris, was involved in the Oslo talks?

Remiz Kartal: No, this is not true. The Turkish media are spreading false information.

Rudaw: What do you think about the statements of the Turkish prime minister, and Huseyin Celik, deputy chairman of his ruling AKP party, who said that the killings were an internal PKK feud?

Remzi Kartal: Just at the moment this incident was known Huseyin Celik made such a statement, which is his own interpretation, and he wishes it was so. It does not reflect the truth. But of course, Celik’s statements raised big doubts in the Kurdish community about the role of the AKP in this event. He deepened the doubts about the AKP.  As the Kurdish side it was our expectation — parallel to the talks on Imrali — that there would have been a more objective way for the AKP to approach these killings of our friends.  Of course, Celik’s statements have raised doubt about the approach of the government, and whether that approach is serious.

Rudaw: Are there also suspicions that the Turkish Islamic Gulen movement played a role in the incident?

Remzi Kartal: We don’t have evidence so far that could prove this. We just noticed media close to the Gulen movement expressing joy over the killings.

Rudaw: Was it true that Sakine Cansiz was supposed to go to Brussels the day of the killing?

Remzi Kartal: That they were supposed to go to Brussels is a scenario put forth by the Turkish media. According to the information we have, she and Leyla Soylemez (a second victim) were on their way to Germany.

Rudaw: Do the statements of the AKP make Kurds regard it as the main suspect?

Remzi Kartal: Yes, of course the statements by the AKP representatives are turning the reality into something else and creating another image. This has aroused very big doubts…

As a movement we expect that, if we want this process to be sustainable, then the AKP should have shown an approach that would have contributed to finding out the truth, finding out who did this and who is involved in this killing. One of the essential problems is the very first statement, made when the event was not really known to the public. From the very beginning the statements were accusing our movement, and that is the actual problem, because it was used to manipulate the truth.

Turkey and KRG start secret talks, deputy says

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ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

The Kurdistan Regional Government and Ankara are discussing a ‘secret’ deal on transporting and marketing the fuel from the autonomous northern Iraq, claims Aytun Çıray, an main opposition CHP deputy. If aforementioned deals come into force, a dissolution within Iraq will be inevitable, he says

Hüseyin Hayatsever huseyin.hayatsever@hdn.com.tr

A main opposition lawmaker insists that Turkey and the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) secretly signed a “framework agreement” last year that outlined transportation and marketing of oil and gas sources in northern Iraq to the global market by excluding the central government in Baghdad.

The secret deal has not yet been finalized and the parties are discussing a critical article, Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Aytun Çıray told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday. He said he had unconfirmed information about the details of the critical article, thus he would not elaborate on what that article consists of for now.

Iraq’s central government in Baghdad and the Arbil-based KRG are locked in a widening dispute over control of oil revenues, oilfields and territory that is fraying the country’s uneasy federal union. The feud between Baghdad and the Arbil-based KRG enclave, which has run its own regional administration and armed forces since 1991, has escalated since the KRG began signing oil deals last year with major companies Exxon Mobil and Chevron to develop fields.

Baghdad insists the central government has the sole constitutional right to export oil, while the KRG says its right to grant contracts to foreign oil firms is enshrined in the Iraqi Constitution, which was drawn up following the 2003 invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

The KRG began exporting its own very light oil, or condensate, independently to world markets in October 2012 via truck to a Turkish port, where it was sold through an intermediary. The central government describes the transaction as “oil-smuggling.”

Iraq’s central government entitles the KRG to 17 percent of oil products refined in Iraq, but the secret deal between Turkey and the KRG aims to transfer all northern oil revenue to Arbil, Çıray said.

The recent political crisis between the Baghdad government and Arbil administration is an outcome of the secret agreement, Çıray also claimed. “These developments could lead to very dangerous results. Divisions within Iraq as well as Turkey could occur. The [Turkish] government is playing a very dangerous game.” The government’s recent talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict between the PKK and security forces had actually been launched to secure “appropriate conditions” for the deal, Çıray also claimed.

The CHP lawmaker issued a parliamentary question to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu about the alleged secret deal.

Arguing that an offshore company was founded by Turkey as part of the secret agreement, Çıray asked Davutoğlu whether companies whose owners are close to the Turkish government would be shareholders in the offshore company.

“If aforementioned deals come into force, a de-facto dissolution within Iraq will be inevitable. Has Turkey’s foreign policy, which advocates the integrity of Iraq, changed?” Çıray asked.

Watchdog ranks Turkey among high-risk states in defense corruption index

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An international anti-corruption watchdog has ranked Turkey among high-risk countries due to its inadequate safeguards to prevent corruption in its defence sectors along with China, Rwanda and Pakistan.

A survey by the Transparency International UK banded countries according to their level of risk of corruption. The risk of corruption is determined by the danger and extent of it occurring and by the frequency citizens may face it. Turkey was ranked in Band D- level, even failing to be among a group of countries such as Kenya and Nepal.

According to the survey released on Tuesday, more than two-thirds of countries, including many of the world’s largest arms traders, also lacked safeguard to prevent corruption in defence sectors.

Germany and Australia are the only countries out of 82 surveyed by the watchdog with strong anti-corruption mechanisms, according to what the watchdog says is the first index measuring how governments counter corruption in defence.

Armenians jeopardized in Istanbul

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Massacres of the Christian population of the Ottoman Empire and its successor Turkey are an integral part of the country’s domestic policy.

Every now and then, Istanbul turns into a city that poses extreme danger to Armenians. This does not mean it had been safe otherwise; still, sometimes Armenians are facing really hard times. Massacres of 1955 which affected Armenians and Jews along with the Greeks were meticulously planned within Turkey’s state policy.

January 26, 2013

PanARMENIAN.Net – Massacres of the Christian population of the Ottoman Empire and its successor Turkey are an integral part of the country’s domestic policy. Currently 98% of Istanbul population identify themselves as ethnic Turks and name the Turkish language as their mother tongue. Meanwhile, the origin of Istanbul citizens is quite diverse, reflecting the complex migration processes in the Ottoman Empire. Despite absolute prevalence of Turkish, the very Turkic genetic element is not very significant among the inhabitants of Turkey (let alone Istanbul), accounting for not more than one third. This phenomenon can be explained by intense Islamization and “Turkization” of non-Turkic nations, the Christians and Jews in the first place who constituted most part of the city’s population until mid-15th century.

There are approximately 60 000 Armenians in Istanbul today who live in constant fear. Assassination of Hrant Dink 6 years ago seemed to cool down the Turkish nationalists; it did not happen, though. Actually, this couldn’t have happened anyway because neither the police nor the state stirred a finger to protect the lives of their own citizens, particularly when Armenians, number one enemy for the Turkish state are involved. However, Istanbul Armenians do not want to put up with it; they say they live in their homeland and are not Diaspora, which is not quite true, in fact. Their homeland, namely Western Armenia was lost long ago, and Armenians are tolerated in Istanbul through habit or out of political necessity.

It should be reminded that one of the oldest members of Istanbul’s Armenian community, 85-year-old Maritsa Kucuk was brutally killed on December 28, 2012. The old woman was beaten and stabbed, then beheaded. Kucuk’s son Zadik found her body. “It was dark inside when I entered the house, and mom was lying on the floor. I thought she had fallen down. Then I saw her body all in blood. She lay naked, and she had a cross sign on her chest,” Zadik told Agos paper. Another elderly Armenian woman was robbed and killed in early December 2012.

On January 6, three unknown people attempted to abduct another old Armenian woman but failed to do this.

On January 10, IT teacher of the Armenian “Aramian” school Ilker Shahin was found dead in his house in Istanbul. Shahin was stabbed in the throat three days prior to being found.

Two elderly Armenian women were assaulted in Istanbul on January 22 and 23. Sultan Aykar, 83 was attacked and beaten near her house. The masked aggressor was scared away by neighbours who heard Aykar’s cries. The witnesses described the attacker as a brunet aged 35-40 dressed in black. The attack left Aykar blind in one eye despite the surgery she underwent. On January 23, two unidentified persons attacked another old Armenian woman in the street near Samatia school; they beat her and then left. According to eye-witnesses, the victim, all in blood, hurried to leave, too. A criminal case is launched on this incident; however, the practice of such proceedings in Turkey is widely known by the example of Hrant Dink’s murderer’s trial.

With all this going on, the fact that Armenians, mostly women, go to Turkey for work, mostly unskilled one and are actually unprotected, cannot but cause concerns. There are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey, and there hardly be any in the near future, so Armenian citizens have no one to address in case of trouble. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that Turkey is not the only option for earning one’s living. There are no guarantees that children of these people also leaving for Turkey will maintain their Armenian identity. They will definitely face assimilation, and those who survive will just dissolve in the 70 million Turkic environment; that’s the reality.

The Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan changed the Minister for Internal Affairs; the former mayor of Istanbul Muammer Guler has taken up the position now. The move was hardly sparked by the recent assaults against Armenians. Istanbul is facing constant terrorist attacks, and Guler is expected to stop the wave of violence perhaps. He will hardly succeed in this though; the Kurds, the perpetrators, are not going to surrender until independent Kurdistan is proclaimed. This will mark the end of Turkey which will simply fall to pieces burying the Christians first.

Karine Ter-Sahakian