Spezzatura

An obstacle to a planned visit by Foreign Minister Ali Babacan to Yerevan for a foreign ministerial meeting of Black Sea countries is another landmark meeting on Pakistan -- with which Turkey shares special relations -- that will be held in Japan on the same days. However, a donors conference aimed at bringing stability to Pakistan will be held in Tokyo on April 17. Babacan is eager to participate in the conference on Pakistan, a frontline US ally in the campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda extremists that has been wracked by growing violence and economic instability, due to the importance attached to the maintenance of stability in this country. Currently, the scheduling of the two meetings in Yerevan and Tokyo seems to hinder Babacan's participation in both of the meetings. Nonetheless, diplomatic sources didn't exclude his participation in either, saying the minister would make his final decision "according to the situation" in the last week before the meetings. Although Ankara has a high opinion of BSEC and wants to revitalize it as an influential regional consultation mechanism, Babacan's participation in the group's next meeting in Yerevan apparently will still depend on Armenia's commitment to the ongoing rapprochement process and on the progress of closed-door talks with Armenia. остальное тут

«Газпром» может стать крупным поставщиком туркменского газа не только на европейском рынке, но и в Иран. При этом концерн усилит свои позиции в зоне Персидского залива и может вытеснить с иранского рынка Туркменистан. В минувшее воскресенье глава Минэнерго Сергей Шматко и министр нефти Ирана Голям Хосейн Нозари подписали меморандум о взаимопонимании в нефтегазовой сфере, который предусматривает возможность осуществления своповых (обменных) поставок «Газпромом» туркменского газа на север Ирана в обмен на поставки иранских углеводородов в страны Персидского залива. «Газпром» будет поставлять туркменский газ, ранее купленный Россией, в Северный Иран в обмен на поставки углеводородов с юга Ирана в страны Персидского залива», – пояснил Сергей Шматко. Он отметил, что в настоящее время рассматриваются разные варианты осуществления такого сотрудничества, в частности, в обмен на туркменский газ «Газпром» может получать с юга Ирана нефть, конденсат, сжиженный природный газ (СПГ) или другие виды топлива. Таким образом, Россия вторгается в сферу интересов Туркменистана, который сейчас самостоятельно поставляет свой газ в Иран и планирует поставлять в этом направлении от 10 до 14 млрд. куб. м в год. Впрочем, вторжение «Газпрома» на этот рынок может быть не столь уж трагично для Ашхабада, так как торговля газом между Ираном и Туркменистаном и так переживает непростые времена. В декабре 2008 года Иран был на грани полного отказа от туркменского газа из-за сокращения поставок. В обмен на свой газ Ашхабад ожидает от Тегерана содействия в расширении уже существующего газопровода по маршруту Корпедж–Курткуи и линий электропередачи, идущих из туркменского Мары в сторону иранского Мешхеда. остальное тут

За время с начала всемирного кризиса в Китае закрылось 70 тысяч заводов и фабрик. Обьемы экспорта в январе упали на 17%, в ферврале уже на 32%. (Обе цифры в сравнении с прошлым годом.) Миллионы уволенных (бывших крестьян) со связкой через плечо уезжают обратно в родные деревни в неизвестность. В докризисной Индии рост IT сектора достигал 32% в год. До 50% IT продукции уходило на экспорт. Сейчас при наилучших обстоятельствах есть надежда на 6% рост. Чем все эти миллионы новых безработных в Китае и Индии будут кормить свои семьи известно одному Будде. Вот вам пример экономики массивно ориентированной на экспорт.

На этом фоне мало кто обращает внимание и на наличие таких немаловажных тем, как Иран и газовый проект Nabucco. В этом смысле вряд ли следует считать простым совпадением приезд Лаврова в Баку сразу же по окончании тегеранского заседания Организации экономического сотрудничества. Следовательно, на встрече с президентом Азербайджана эта тема не могла быть обойдена вниманием. Во-первых, Иран проявляет небывалую активность для участия в реализации проекта Nabucco, предполагая в том числе транспортировать по своей территории газ из Туркмении. Во-вторых, Тегеран, как и Москва, не сторонник усиления присутствия США и стран Запада в Каспийском бассейне. Обе эти темы так или иначе находятся в центре внимания российской внешней политики, которая хотела бы склонить на свою сторону и Азербайджан, не скрывающий своего стремления интегрироваться в евроатлантические структуры. Словом, тем для обсуждения министра иностранных дел России в Баку было более чем достаточно. Но конкретно о результатах проведенных здесь переговоров станет известно, по всей видимости, не сегодня. остальное тут

If the resolution passes Congress and the US recognizes the so-called genocide, then the whole so-called genocide enterprise becomes an international business. Relying on the fact that the US government recognizes the so-called genocide, a US state or federal court or an international authority such as an International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor could take the issue to The Hague to prosecute the late Ottoman government for the alleged genocide and war crimes. Similarly, the proponents of the so-called genocide would try to convince one or more of the UN member states to take the issue to the International Court of Justice against Turkey. The ICC cannot rule for any reparations to be given to the Armenians because the ICC does not have jurisdiction over Turkey, as Turkey is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which founded the ICC. However, the mere existence of the ICC prosecution would bring, the Armenian diaspora thinks, satisfactory damage to Turkey's image. No need to mention that such an outcome would materialize, if ever, only after several decades throughout which lucrative lobbying opportunities would emerge, and Turkey would be forced to a series of concessions to the Armenians -- and not necessarily only to the Armenians. остальное тут

Krekorian Defeats Azeri Efforts to Influence Legislators SACRAMENTO--California State Assemblymember Paul Krekorian (D-Glendale) last week defeated an effort by Azerbaijiani government agents to solicit false statements from his fellow legislators to support an international anti-Armenian propaganda campaign. Several representatives of the Republic of Azerbaijian, including a member of Parliament and the Azeri Consul General, as well as their paid lobbyist, were in the State Capitol to meet with members of the legislature. Among other things, the Azeri agents were soliciting legislators to sign a letter to President Aliyev expressing solidarity with the people of Azerbaijian and acknowledging what they called the "Khojaly massacre" during the Karabakh war of independence in 1992. The Azeri's lobbyist even suggested that all-expense-paid trips to Azerbaijian could be available to legislators who "understand the issues." Within hours of learning of this effort, Krekorian contacted every member of the Assembly, including the Speaker, and every member of the Senate, including the President pro tem, to urge them not to sign the Azeri letter. Krekorian, who serves as the Assistant Majority Leader of the Assembly, wrote to each member with an explanation of the historical controversy over the Khojaly incident. Krekorian further explained that the Azeri government was attempting to use their biased view of the incident as a propaganda tool in an international effort to discredit Armenia and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. Because of Krekorian's immediate and forceful advocacy, only one out of 120 members of the Assembly and the Senate signed the Azeri letter. The result was an embarassing failure for the Azeri propaganda machine, which has significantly increased its anti-Armenian rhetoric throughout the world in recent months. "The Azeri government has no business being in our State Capitol peddling their anti-Armenian prejudices," Krekorian said. "Their letter about the Khojaly incident is outrageously biased and misleading, and is nothing more than a cynical manipulation of a tragedy for propaganda purposes. Obviously, they desperately want to distract attention from the growing worldwide demand for justice for the Armenian Genocide, but they will not succeed. I'm glad that my colleagues saw through this charade and refused to be used as propaganda tools by the Azeri government." Regrettably, one member of the Assembly did sign the letter, and that fact was quickly seized upon as a "victory" by the Azeri propagandists. Within a matter of hours, that letter was being quoted on Turkish and Azeri websites throughout the world, which applauded the author for standing up to pressure from the Armenian Diaspora and "pro-Armenian" legislators. Some of these sites even made reference to the Khojaly incident as a "genocide," thereby revealing the true propaganda purpose of this effort. Assemblymember Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank) represents the cities of Burbank and Glendale, and the Los Angeles communities of Atwater Village, Los Feliz, North Hollywood, Silver Lake, Toluca Lake, Valley Glen, Valley Village and Van Nuys. ссылка

The lives of families whose hopes for finding their missing relatives were renewed following the launching of the Ergenekon investigation are not easy. After their relatives disappeared, many of them had to move to other places and they became poorer. The rest of their children had to quit school in order to find a job. Some of the relatives of the missing people stopped "uttering a single word" in order to express their protest and resentment. But some children, like Mehmet Hebun Özdemir and Mizgin Şen, were not yet born when their fathers disappeared. Yasin recited over others' graves "Because she suffers from a deep sorrow, she does not speak. She never speaks. She has been silent since that day," says İsmet İlbak, whose face is lined with deep wrinkles, pointing at his wife, Fatma. However, as soon as I step into the room that is full of children of all ages -- ranging from a sleeping infant in the cradle, a crawling toddler and several older kids who are drawing fake watches on their wrists -- Fatma puts her arms around me and starts to cry. I discover that she is crying not from the sound of her sobs, but because of her tears rolling down onto me. Her deep-set eyes do the speaking. She makes some gestures with her thin-boned hands, and I occasionally hear feeble wheezing sounds. By closing her mouth tight, Fatma has been protesting the disappearance of her son, İlhan İlbak, who was detained along with six other people in 1994; they were taken away in a helicopter and never returned. As she embraces his framed photo and caresses it as if it is the most fragile and most vulnerable living object in the world, the burden of talking about their son falls on the shoulders of his father. “Only God knows if he is still alive or not. But it may be that they have beaten him to death. I overheard a conversation among the village guards. They were saying that our son had pleaded with them not to be killed. But they are paid for every person they kill,” he says. When their original village, Kırkağaç, was evacuated, the İlbak family moved to Fındık village. İlhan İlbak was the eldest son of the family, and he was continuously urged to become a village guard. “He did want to become a village guard. He was a good man, a nice guy. They were accusing him of being a supporter of the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party]. They were accusing him of giving meals to his guests [members of the PKK],” he explains. According to İsmet İlbak, the six people who were detained along with his son were taken away on a helicopter, but only one of them was released. “After he took them to the location of a [terrorist] shelter, he was released. But, our son disappeared because he did not know any such location. The released person told us that they continuously beat my son,” he says. İlhan’s father has referred his demand for justice to God, but he still mentions a name with hesitation: village guard Bahattin Aktuğ -- a.k.a. Baho Ağa -- who hosted Levent Ersöz, a defendant in the Ergenekon trial, in his house while the police were searching for him. “He knows whether my son was killed or not. I went to him. I said to him, ‘Please, do not kill my son.’ He shrugged me off. Who will actually help me?” he asks. He stares at his wife, who has been silently crying, and at his children running hither and thither in the room before pronouncing: “How I wished he were here at home, even if we could not find bread to eat tonight. I don’t care if we lived in a tent, as long as he would return. There are wells, it is said. Perhaps, a well is where they put him. No one knows. Only God knows.” When İlhan disappeared, his father notes, he left behind a wife and two children, a girl baby who was still breastfeeding and a newly walking boy toddler. “There is no grave for my son that I can stand atop and recite the Yasin [a surah from the Quran frequently recited as a supplication for the dead], but I go to cemeteries and recite the Yasin for the dead children of other people,” he says, and after a pause, adds quietly: “Sometimes, people give me money to recite the Yasin for their dead, and I can buy vegetables with this money. We make our living in this way. Barely, but we still thank God for it.” ‘Mehmet exists’ Human rights organizations and lawyers dealing with the missing persons’ cases cannot provide the exact number of people who disappeared in the 1990s. Still, according to their estimates, at least 1,200 people went missing. While it is a common desire among the relatives of the missing people to have a “grave to say supplications to,” their methods of commemorating their lost relatives and for surviving without their missing family members are different. Some, like the father of İlhan İlbak, recite the Yasin for the dead relatives of other people instead of doing this atop his own son’s grave, while others create a corner of remembrance in their houses. Some give the names of missing people to their newborn babies; Cemal Özdemir, who was 14 years old when his father, Mehmet Özdemir, disappeared in 1997, named his little brother -- born six months after the disappearance of his father -- Mehmet Hebun, meaning “Mehmet exists” in Kurdish. “We have always told our mother this: ‘Mom, there may not be any meals in this house, but our sisters and brothers should always wear new and clean clothes. No one should find an opportunity to say that their father worked for nothing and his children were left behind without protection,’” Cemal Özdemir says. He points out that they still live in their father’s shadow, so they do not smoke cigarettes in order to be worthy of him. “We worked in İstanbul, but we never indulged in evil things. Even normal families would be hurled to and fro in İstanbul, but we tried to be what our father would want us to be. Everyone loved him. People show us respect because we are his children,” he says. Before he disappeared, Mehmet Özdemir was the local executive of the People’s Democracy Party (HADEP) in Diyarbakır. He had been previously detained eight times. “They took him away when he was in a teahouse. We thought he would be referred to the court and released afterwards, as it was with the previous detentions. But this is not what happened,” he says. Cemal Özdemir explains that while they were searching for their father, their mother learned how to read and write, they received threats, even some of their close relatives stopped talking with them, they had to work in far-away cities in order to look after the family, they would jump every time the phone rang because it might bring news about their father, their mother’s health deteriorated and some ill-intentioned people came to them and said, “Your father is alive, and if you give us money, we will show you his location.” They just want justice and a grave to say prayers for, and they will not quit searching until they find a trace of their father. Even if Cemal Özdemir does not express it in words, his big calloused hands tell what he has gone through after his father disappeared. One is inclined to ask whether he has ever thought, “If only my father had not engaged in politics.” Özdemir pauses for sometime, staring in front of him. “My father is still respected. If he had been an evil person, would they still have respect for him? ... I don’t know -- if things had been different, say, if he had some debts to pay back, or if he had been involved in evil things -- but as you can see this is a legitimate struggle, an effort to speak one’s own language.” For Cemal Özdemir, the forces in the past that believed they could solve problems by causing people to disappear should now ponder why 8-year-old kids shout pro-Kurdish slogans; they should realize that making people disappear will not solve anything. “If you wander in the mountains of Mesopotamia, you’ll see human bones everywhere. It follows that this business cannot be stopped through violence. I remember when the gendarmerie came to the village, we would conceal Kurdish cassettes. My little brother’s name is Mehmet Hebun, but the civil register did not accept it. Now there is a state-owned TV channel aired in Kurdish, and all sorts of Kurdish words are being used. Kurdish letters are used as well. If you would do this in the end, why has so much blood been spilled? If only this would have happened before 30,000 people died,” he says. One missing person, four helpless women left behind Mehmet Hebun is not the only child who was born after his father disappeared. Emine, who is currently 15 years old, was born two months after her father, Fikri Şen, had been taken with İlhan İlbak in a helicopter. Emine is her name in the civil register records. Her family prefers to call her Mizgin, meaning “good news” in Kurdish. They chose this name when they still had hopes for the return of her father. However, Mizgin, who was the first and only child of her parents, had neither an elder brother nor any other relative who would look after her. Four people are waiting for us in front of the single-room house of Mizgin and her family in the muddy and dusty Cudi neighborhood, which was formed by migrants, in Cizre: Mizgin, her mother, Bedriye, her father’s sister, Vechiye, and her grandmother, Adile. Adile, who is wasting away from age and so weak that I can feel her individual bones, faints in my arms even before she can say hello. We carry Adile, who is as light as a feather, in and make sure she revives. The four women line up, leaning on a wall of the narrow room, and then Mizgin’s mother begins the story. “I was married for two years. When our village was burned down in 1994, we moved to Fındık. The muhtar and the commander of the military outpost came at dawn to take away my husband. We thought, ‘We have no problems with the state, so why does this happen?’ We were afraid,” she sums up. Feeling better, Adile adds in tears: “I ran after them. ‘Don’t take away my son,’ I cried. I threw myself in front of them. ‘Go to hell with your son,’ they swore,” she says. Like the İlbak family, Adile accuses Baho Ağa: “I pleaded with them. ‘Don’t touch my son,’ I said. When Mizgin was only 6 days old, I put her in front of them and told them, ‘Give her back her father.’ They said to me, ‘Become a village guard, and we will give your son back.’ I told the father of my son, ‘Go and become a village guard, and bring back my son.’ But his father went, and returned, saying, ‘Our son might not be alive.’” In the years of armed conflict, what Adile always feared was not the possibility of her son’s detention, but of his abduction by the PKK. She says that if her son had not died, there is only one way he could be alive. “I always dream of him in the mountains. If he is not dead, he must be there.” What happened to Mizgin’s father is not known, but the Şen family disintegrated after his disappearance. Mizgin’s grandfather had a heart attack and died. Her two uncles and their children moved to Kayseri, fearful for their own lives. “My sons ran away in a desperate attempt to save their lives. They are also indifferent. Since that time, they have been living away from us. They cannot help us. Only our neighbors help us. During Ramadan, they give us dinner.” Adile says she wants to learn immediately whether her son is alive or not -- not because she would have a grave for him, but in order to free her daughter-in-law to remarry. “She is a young woman. We might be needlessly forcing her to not marry any other man, making her wait for her husband.” In this respect, Adile is different from many of the families with missing persons. Indeed, the young wives of the missing men tend to live with their fathers-in-law, waiting for husbands who might never return. Mizgin complains about her uncles. She labors as an agricultural worker in the summer, but when she is asked about her performance in school, her eyes shine with excitement, and she wipes away her tears with the back of her hand. “My lessons are very good. I will become a lawyer to litigate my father’s case.” ссылка

A man held one gun to his head and another to his chest in front of the Prime Ministry in Ankara yesterday in protest of economic conditions before surrendering to police. The man, identified as Tuncer A., refused to surrender to police for several minutes, repeating over and over his wish to meet the prime minister. остальное тут

"This border, which had separated our nations for 70 years, turned into a bridge of friendship where our peoples could embrace after Georgia gained its independence. This virtual portal should not remain a gate of formality; our people should easily pass through this border. We should quickly eradicate all bureaucratic obstacles to this," the prime minister said. "We will continue standing by Georgia's side. I should clearly express this: We are two countries connected to each other through family ties. These ties most certainly contribute to all sorts of relationships between us in political, military, economic, commercial and cultural terms. I see and believe that these will intensify in the period ahead," he continued. Saakashvili said Turkey is Georgia's key trade partner and that trade turnover between the two countries should reach $5 billion soon. Frequently referring to Erdoğan as "my dear brother," Saakashvili recalled that he had visited the Sarp border gate five years ago with the Turkish prime minister. "We saw the difficulties of the traders here with my dear brother Erdoğan, and decided that there should be no artificial borders. Artificial borders and obstructions are unnecessary. My dear brother told me: 'Visas will be eradicated and a free trade zone agreement will be signed.' Now this has been signed. Now this has happened. A large number of goods circulate with no bureaucratic obstacles. Simplifying formalities and making trade possible with a single process is being done only between France and Switzerland. After today's opening, it will also work between Georgia and Turkey," he stated. остальное тут

Баку снимает с президента ограничения Сохбет Мамедов Бюро местных властей Конгресса Совета Европы (КМРВСЕ) призвало власти Азербайджана отложить референдум, назначенный на 18 марта 2009 года и, по сути, снимающий ограничения в сроках президентского правления. В сообщении пресс-службы Совета Европы отмечается: «И.о. председателя Конгресса Ян Микаллеф выразил обеспокоенность по поводу предложенной поправки к статье 146 Конституции Азербайджана из-за ее возможного несоответствия Европейской хартии местного самоуправления». Основные претензии европейцев направлены на положения, касающиеся норм местного самоуправления. Между тем ключевым моментом выносимых на референдум вопросов является отмена конституционной нормы, допускающей избрание одного и того же лица президентом Азербайджана не более двух раз. Как уже писала «НГ», инициатором внесения этих изменений в Основной закон страны выступила правящая партия «Ени Азербайджан» («Новый Азербайджан»), объяснившая свое предложение тем, что эта норма Конституции вступает в противоречие с правами человека и значительно возросший уровень экономического развития страны и политической культуры населения позволяет устранить подобные формальные ограничения». Оппозиция в целом выступает против проведения референдума. Созданные ими агитгруппы «За Карабах и республику» и «Республиканцы», в которые входят Народный фронт, «Мусават», Демократическая и Либеральная партии, намерены 9 марта провести акцию против проведения референдума и внесения в Конституцию изменений и дополнений, сообщил глава аппарата партии «Мусават» Ариф Гаджилы. Однако эта акция вряд ли способна изменить ход развития событий, ибо азербайджанская оппозиция не обладает той силой, которая смогла заставить власти считаться с ее мнением. Что же касается призыва Бюро местных властей Конгресса Совета Европы, то за две недели до референдума эта реакция более чем запоздалая, считает эксперт по Кавказу Илгар Нур. По его словам, власти Азербайджана скорее всего проигнорируют обращение КМРВСЕ. «Совету Европы следовало бы отреагировать на инициативу правящей партии Азербайджана, когда она только обсуждалась в парламенте, не предлагая дожидаться заключения Венецианской комиссии, которая даст свое правовое заключение по поправкам в Конституцию лишь за 4–5 дней до референдума», – заявил «НГ» эксперт. Между тем, по данным Центральной избирательной комиссии, на сегодняшний день общее число местных наблюдателей, зарегистрированных для участия в референдуме, приближается к 20 тыс. Приглашения посланы также в ряд международных организаций, однако их участие на референдуме маловероятно. «Референдум не может быть предметом для международного наблюдения, так как является внутренним делом Азербайджана. Этим он отличается и от президентских, и от парламентских выборов. Тем не менее мы пригласили высокопоставленных европейских чиновников от Совета Европы и ПАСЕ. Но особой какой-либо международной наблюдательной миссии не будет», – заявил журналистам накануне заведующий общественно-политическим отделом администрации президента Азербайджана Али Гасанов. Напомним, что референдум по внесению изменений в Основной закон Азербайджана пройдет 18 марта. Центральное место в пакете изменений занимает предложение об отмене положения о запрете одного и того же лица избираться президентом страны более двух сроков подряд. Данная конституционная поправка может позволить Ильхаму Алиеву занимать пост президента пожизненно. ссылка

Sources reveal that the element of a "joint historical commission" has now become the make-or-break issue in the talks. But we are closer to the "make" side of things because the dispute seems to focus on technicalities of a commission's operations (timing and structuring, etc.) rather than the possibility of its existence. Once an agreement is reached on these matters, the path will be much clearer to establishing diplomatic relations and opening the land border. остальное тут

Армянская оппозиция отказалась от революций 1 марта в центре Еревана возле Института древних рукописей Матенадаран состоялся митинг оппозиции, посвященный памяти жертв мартовских событий 2008 года, сообщает "Интерфакс". Выступая на санкционированном в последний момент мероприятии, лидер Армянского национального конгресса, экс-президент страны Левон Тер-Петросян объявил, что оппозиция не собирается осуществлять революцию, проводить круглосуточные акции протеста и предпринимать другие радикальные меры. "В лексиконе Армянского национального конгресса не будет слов "революция", "бунт", "круглосуточные акции протеста" и других радикальных мер. Мы отвергаем такие идеи. Пока подобные старомодные идеи не вышли из нашего сознания, Армения не сможет стать демократической страной", - заявил Тер-Петросян. По его словам, захваченную силой власть можно удержать только силой. "Этого не мы хотим. Наш путь - это конституционная борьба. Мы достигнем законных новых выборов президента", - добавил оппозиционный лидер. По мнению Тер-Петросяна, в скором времени власть придет к саморазрушению и, возможно, предложит оппозиции сформировать совместное правительство. Следующий митинг оппозиции состоится 1 мая. остальноe тут

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