Women leaving Armenia for Turkey are prostituting and this issue has turned into serious problem for local authorities, APA reports quoting “News.am”. According to the report of Turkish Parliament’s Sub-Committee, 5900 Armenian citizens have been deported from Turkey over the last 3 years. The report also reads that 779 Armenian women in 2007, 474 in 2008 were deported from Turkey because of prostitution. But this year 100 Armenian citizens have been deported from Turkey.
APA
by Armenia now
When at the age of 16 Istanbul-resident Sidar Yumlu’s uncle told him that he was, in fact, an Armenian, and his father’s ancestors were Armenians, Sidar was stunned.
The young man, who always considered himself to be a Kurd, and who was actively fighting for Kurdish problems, one day by chance found out that his ancestors were Islamized Armenians.
“In the beginning, I did not believe, but when I saw my grandfather’s old passport, where it was written that his name was Karapet, and last name – Harutyan, I understood that I have a long way to pass in search of my identity,” 24-year-old Sidar told ArmeniaNow.
As a young man who was brought up as a Kurd, and who knew very little about Armenians, Sidar started looking for his roots, understanding why his ancestors had to keep silence, what difficulties they had to pass through, and that there are many Armenians like him, who have no idea about their real nationality.
“My father experienced many difficulties, he was pressed a lot. That is why he hid [his nationality] to protect us,” Sidar says. “It was very difficult in the beginning. During the whole first part of my life I knew that I was a Kurd, I studied Kurdish, I lived and thought as a Kurd, and now I was, kind of, revealing another person inside of me.”
Being a student of the Department of Political Sciences at the Caucasian University of Kars, Sidar now investigates his Armenian roots, he tours in many towns and villages, trying to find ‘hidden’ Armenians like him.
“I have heard many terrible stories, and now I understand that it is necessary to struggle. So many innocent people died in this country. We can’t keep silent anymore,” Sidar says.
According to historical sources, during the Armenian Genocide in 1915, about 100,000 Armenian children and women were turned Turks, and as of now, according to approximate calculations, there are about 300,000 hidden and Islamized Armenians in Turkey.
Sidar says that hidden Armenians have become more active recently. “Of course, many are afraid yet, but for example, the foundation of ‘Union of Dersim Armenians’ was a rather giant step.”
The establishment of ‘Union of Dersim Armenians’ a few months ago in Tunceli province in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey, which exists to help hidden and Islamized Armenians re-find their identity, learn the Armenian language, and get acquainted with Armenian values, raised a clamor in Turkey.
According to Turkish Zaman Daily, about 600 families became members of the union, established eight months ago.
Selahattin Gultekin, founder of ‘Union of Dersim Armenians’, (Dersim, now Tunceli, historical Armenian province) who went to court to change his name and religion, now is known as Mihran Prkich (Mihran Savior).
“I do not want Dersimtsi Armenians to have Turkish or Kurdish names. We must live without being hidden,” Mihran said, as Sabah daily reports.
In the beginning the union must take care of teaching Armenian to those Armenians who don’t know their mother tongue, as well as reconstructing Armenian cemeteries and churches in Tunceli. According to Sidar, it is possible to set up such unions in other provinces, too, where there are many Armenians.
Ruben Melkonyan, specialist in Turkish studies, deputy dean of the Oriental Studies Department at the Yerevan State University, who studies issues related to Islamized Armenians, divides them into three groups.
First is hidden Armenians who preserve the national identity through inter-community marriages; they are Muslims outwardly, but they secretly keep their Christian ceremonies. The next group consists of Islamized Armenians, whose parents adopted Islam, and they may marry Turks. The third group consists of generations of mixed marriages, part of which are Islamized Armenians.
“Hidden Armenians are very few, and they are afraid of being revealed. During one of my visits one old woman told me that they go to a mosque to pray, but they pray to Jesus Christ,” Melkonyan recalls.
There is a concept paper on foreign-language-speaking Armenians and Armenians belonging to a different religion on the list of programs at the Ministry of Diaspora of Armenia. However, it is not finally drafted yet.
While Armenia discusses the possibilities of converting Islamized Armenians, Sidar believes that the process has already started in Turkey, and many people will try to understand what their real nationality is.
“I am not afraid, I have nothing more to lose; we have lost the language, we have lost the religion. What else do we have [to lose]?” Sidar asks, adding proudly, “now the only way is to recover everything.”
Special thanks to Sona Khachatryan, who did translations from Armenian into Turkish and vice-versa at the interview with Sidar Yumlu.
/Times.am-Armenian news/
Air link between Bangladesh capital Dhaka and largest Turkish city Istanbul will be established in the last week of this month.
“Initially the Turkish Airlines will operate Dhaka-Istanbul flights four days a week from this month,” Civil Aviation and Tourism secretary shafique Alam Mehdi said yesterday.
The flight operations between Bangladesh and Turkey was finalised as a memorandum of understanding was signed between civil aviation authorities of Bangladesh and Turkish government at a bilateral meeting, held in Turkish capital Ankara on November 24.
Europe especially London-bound passengers can travel in a very competitive airfare taking Istanbul as a transit, he said.
“The flights via Istanbul route to London will reduce the air fare and also reduce the airtime journey of the country’s passengers,” he said.
via Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper – SriLanka/Bangladesh.
By Shumaila Andleeb
ISLAMABAD, Dec 10 (APP): From the love of Pakistanis for Kamal Ataturk to the Turks’ affection for Jinnah – the brotherly relationship is ready to witness a shining era as Pakistan and Turkey have entered a new world of strategic partnership with signing of 17 Memoranda of Understanding in different fields.With ‘Ataturk Avenue’ in Islamabad and ‘Jinnah Jadesi’ roads in Ankara, the two capitals have got a new strategic dimension with the recent official visit of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani to Turkey.
The signing of 17 MoUs by the two countries has been regarded as a “turning point” to mutually benefit from each others’ potential in the fields including health, education,agriculture, infrastructure, housing and media.
Turkey also offered to build schools and hospitals in Pakistan’s flood-affected regions within six months.
Both the Prime Ministers of Pakistan and Turkey expressed conviction to take personal interest in ensuring practical implementation of the 17 MoUs.
Prime Minister Gilani’s visit to Turkey also marks conferment of three separate honors for him. Turkish President Abdullah Gul awarded the Prime Minister with ‘Jamhuriyat Nishan – The Republic Order’ at a special investiture ceremony in recognition to furthering the relations between two countries.
Another award was Degree of Doctorate of Journalism for the Prime Minister by Turkey’s prestigious Marmara University.
The University Rector termed Gilani as “Man of Culture” and said the institution was interested in learning from his experiences through his lectures.
Gilani also had the honour to address the Turkish Grand National Assembly, making him the first head of the government from Pakistan addressing the Turk parliamentarians.
Prime Minister Gilani who co-chaired the inaugural session of High Level Cooperation Council (HLCC) with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, has termed the body as a “direct interaction between the cabinets of two Prime Ministers”.
In the ancient city of Istanbul, the Prime Minister during his interaction with the Turkish businessmen offered them to invest in agriculture, housing, energy and infrastructure development, with an effort to for private sectors of the two countries to engage deeply with each other. The Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) of Turkey expressed desire to strengthen the economic relations of two countries on a higher level.
Gilani told the Turkish businessmen that Pakistan had decided to give visa on arrival for 30 days to all Turkish nationals who possessed valid US, UK or Schengen visas.
He also expressed hope that the remaining formalities will soon be completed for the conclusion of Visa Abolition Agreement for bonafide businessmen of Turkey and Pakistan.
Pakistan and Turkey also reiterated their last year’s agreement to increase bilateral trade volume to US$2 billion by 2012.
Prime Minister Gilani concluded his visit with a saying that defines the crux of relationship between Pakistan and Turkey, as “The Pak-Turk relationship is a true sense of brotherhood. It is, as if we are a single family. We value these very special relations and will take them to even greater heights.”
via Associated Press Of Pakistan ( Pakistan’s Premier NEWS Agency ) – Pakistan-Turkey – a journey from ‘brotherhood to strategic partnership’.
18:53 08/12/2010 » Politics
Mayor of Yerevan Gagik Beglaryan has just resigned from his office, Panorama.am sources told.
It’s worth noting that today Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Taron Margaryan was called to President’s residence. It’s believed that his visit to President’s Administration was directly connected with the incident over Gagik Beglaryan.
It’s reported that Gagik Beglaryan brutally beat Aram Kandayan, an officer of protocol service from President’s Administration. President’s Spokesman Armen Arzumanyan confirmed the incident and declared such events are unacceptable and intolerable.
Comments alleged to be from WikiLeaks US embassy cables say Indian generals are genocidal and New Delhi backs militants
Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari with army chief General Ashfaq Kayani. Pakistani newspapers have written much about Zardari’s preoccupation with death but little about the army. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
They read like the most extraordinary revelations. Citing the WikiLeaks cables, major Pakistani newspapers this morning carried stories that purported to detail eye-popping American assessments of India’s military and civilian leaders.
According to the reports, US diplomats described senior Indian generals as vain, egotistical and genocidal; they said India’s government is secretly allied with Hindu fundamentalists; and they claimed Indian spies are covertly supporting Islamist militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt and Balochistan.
“Enough evidence of Indian involvement in Waziristan, Balochistan,” read the front-page story in the News; an almost identical story appeared in the Urdu-language Jang, Pakistan’s bestselling daily.
If accurate, the disclosures would confirm the worst fears of Pakistani nationalist hawks and threaten relations between Washington and New Delhi. But they are not accurate.
An extensive search of the WikiLeaks database by the Guardian by date, name and keyword failed to locate any of the incendiary allegations. It suggests this is the first case of WikiLeaks being exploited for propaganda purposes.
The controversial claims, published in four Pakistani national papers, were credited to the Online Agency, an Islamabad-based news service that has frequently run pro-army stories in the past. No journalist is bylined.
Shaheen Sehbai, group editor at the News, described the story as “agencies’ copy” and said he would investigate its origins.
The incident fits in with the wider Pakistani reaction to WikiLeaks since the first cables emerged.
In the west, reports have focused on US worries for the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile, or the army’s support for Islamist militants such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for the Mumbai attack.
But Pakistan’s media has given a wide berth to stories casting the military in a negative light, focusing instead on the foibles of the country’s notoriously weak politicians.
Editors have pushed stories that focus on president Asif Ali Zardari’s preoccupation with his death, prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s secret support for CIA drone strikes and tales of a bearded religious firebrand cosying up to the US ambassador.
Among ordinary citizens, the coverage has hardened perceptions that Pakistani leaders are in thrall to American power.
Pakistan has become “the world’s biggest banana republic”, wrote retired diplomat Asif Ezdi last week.
Military and political leaders, portrayed as dangerously divided in the cables, have banded together to downplay the assessment.
“Don’t trust WikiLeaks,” Gilani told reporters in Kabul last weekend. Beside him president Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, also tarred in the dispatches, nodded solemnly.
On Saturday the army, having stayed silent all week, denied claims that army chief General Ashfaq Kayani “distrusted” the opposition leader Nawaz Sharif. Kayani “holds all political leaders in esteem”, a spokesman said.
Meanwhile conspiracy theorists, including some journalists, insist Washington secretly leaked the cables in an effort to discredit the Muslim world; the Saudi ambassador described them as propaganda.
But senior judges favour their publication. Dismissing an attempt to block WikiLeaks last week, justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed said the cables “may cause trouble for some personalities” but would be “good for the progress of the nation in the long run”.
The lopsided media coverage highlights the strong influence of Pakistan’s army over an otherwise vigorous free press.
This morning’s stories disparaging Indian generals – one is said to be “rather a geek”, another to be responsible for “genocide” and compared to Slobodan Milosevic – is counterbalanced by accounts of gushing American praise for Pakistan’s top generals.
The actual WikiLeaks cables carry a more nuanced portraits of a close, if often uneasy, relationship between the US and Pakistan’s military.
But the real cables do contain allegations of Indian support for Baloch separatists, largely sourced to British intelligence assessments.
Pakistan’s press is generally cautious in reporting about its own army. But some internet commentators said the latest WikiLeaks story was a bridge too far.
via Pakistani media publish fake WikiLeaks cables attacking India | World news | The Guardian.
