Azerbaijan Society of America (ASA)
+1 212 459-4550 [email protected]
Azerbaijani-American Council (AAC)
+1 949 275-7717 [email protected]
The First Pax Turcica
Turkic-American Peace Conference
Dedicated to the 91st anniversary of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR), the first secular democratic statehood in the Turkic and Muslim world New York City, NY, USA Saturday, May 16, 2009
Azerbaijan Society of America (ASA) and Azerbaijani-American Council (AAC) announce the First “Pax Turcica” Conference dedicated to the 91st anniversary of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR), the first secular democratic establishment in Turkic and Muslim world, to be held on May 16, 2009 in New York City.
ASA and AAC welcome Azerbaijani, Turkish and other Turkic-American groups to join the initiative as co-organizers and participants. For further information, please, contact ASA or AAC.
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
The conference program will comprise of three panels with 15-minute presentations by students and scholars scheduled at each panel. The window for submission of presentations as well as the registration and venue information will be available in January 2009 through the website of Pax Turcica to be announced.
Panel 1: Turkic Unity: Past, Present, Future
Topics:
The role of history and literature in the development of identity in Turkic-speaking nations
Founding ideology of ADR, the works of Turkic publicists of the early 20th century
Current ideological trends and their impact in the development of Turkic-speaking diasporas
Panel 2: Modernism: Democracy and Suffrage
Topics:
Parliament and universal suffrage in ADR
Media and its contribution to modernism
Democratic processes in Turkic-speaking nations
Panel 3: Islam and Secular Statehood
Topics:
Impact of Islam in the formation of secular national statehood in ADR
Historical and contemporary religious trends in Turkic-speaking countries
Tolerance and interfaith dialogue in predominantly Muslim Turkic societies
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A unique documentary about the Armenian genocide will soon be released by PBS’ Frontline titled “A Family Erased”, George Kachadorian, the film director, told PanARMENIAN.Net.
“The film features my father and his sisters who recently made a journey back to historic Armenia – now Eastern Turkey – in search of the homes our family fled around the turn of the century. As my family winds their way through mountain passes far, far off the tourist track, they rely on hand drawn Armenian maps, handed down through the generations, and the help of a Turkish speaking guide to try and locate the streets and towns that have long since been renamed.
As international tensions flare over a new U.S. bill that would formally acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, my father Jim and my aunts Elaine, Marion and Georgiana embark on the adventure of a lifetime – deep into the mountains of Eastern Anatolia on a search for their grandparents’ homes at the epicenter of the 20th century’s first genocide,” Kachadorian said.
Heads of Turkish speaking news agencies gathered on Friday in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus at a consultative meeting in a bid to strengthen cooperation between news agencies of Turkic countries.
Friday, 14 November 2008 13:51
Addressing the meeting of the Association of Turkish Speaking News Agencies (TKA), Hilmi Bengi, director general of the Anadolu Agency, said the association would continue to work with “a new momentum after its latest enlargement.”
Anadolu Agency from Turkey, Turkish News Agency-Cyprus from Northern Cyprus, AzerTac from Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz News Agency, and the Crimean News Agency participated at the consultative meeting and they issued a final declaration, vowing to increase cooperation.
The argument over rights within Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre is as complicated and seemingly intractable as the Middle East conflict itself.
But when the dispute descends into violence, battles are pitched with crucifixes and staves rather than missiles, guns and stones.
Many Christians believe the church in the heart of Jerusalem’s old city marks the place of Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. As such, it is arguably Christianity’s holiest site.
A church has stood in the area for 1,700 years. Due to the conflicts that Jerusalem has since endured, the building has been partly destroyed, rebuilt and renovated several times.
a diagram of the church
It is now a labyrinthine complex of chapels and living quarters that is visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists every year.
“Caught On Tape:” What began as an annual procession by Christian monksat the Church Of The Holy Sepulchre, ended in a flurry of punches. The church is believed to be the site of Jesus’ crucifixion.
The church is grudgingly shared by six claimant communities – Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Egyptian Copt and Ethiopian Orthodox – who have always jealously defended their rights over various parts of the complex.
Rivalry between the groups dates back to the aftermath of the crusades and to the great schism between Eastern and Western Christianity in the 11th Century.
The Status Quo
So intense is the intra-Christian dispute that the six communities cannot agree which of them should have a key to the site’s main door.
Consequently, two Muslim families have been the sole guardians of the 25cm (10 inch) key since they were entrusted with the task by the Muslim ruler Saladin in 1178.
One family is responsible for unlocking the door each morning and locking it each night, while the other is responsible for its safekeeping at all other times.
In order to settle disputes, the Ottoman sultan issued a 1757 edict (now referred to as the Status Quo agreement) which outlined jurisdiction over Jerusalem’s various Christian holy places.
Regarding the Holy Sepulchre, it defined exactly which parts – from chapel, to lamp, to flagstone – of the complex were to be controlled by which denomination.
The ruling forbad any changes in designated religious sites without permission from the ruling government.
It also prohibited any changes whatsoever to designated sacred areas – from building, to structural repairs to cleaning – unless collectively agreed upon by the respective “tenants” from the rival religious communities.
Punishment for a violation of the edict could result in the confiscation of properties overseen by the offending group.
So closely is the ruling followed that it took 17 years of debate before an agreement was reached to paint the church’s main dome in 1995.
Acrimonious processions
Monks and friars have been known to exchange blows over who owns a chapel or whose right it is to clean which step.
Religious ceremonies can appear more like singing contests with communities battling to chant the loudest.
Monks inside the church are fiercely protective about their rights
Access to the tomb of Christ – a pale pink kiosk punctuated with portholes and supported by scaffolding that the writer Robert Byron compared to a steam-engine – is particularly fiercely guarded on such occasions.
Processions on holy days regularly become acrimonious, with jostling crowds exacerbating tensions over territorial disputes that periodically descend into in punch-ups.
The smallest slight can end in violence: In 2004, a door to the Roman Catholic chapel was left open during a Greek Orthodox ceremony.
This was perceived by the Greeks to be a sign of disrespect, and a fight broke out which resulted in several arrests.
The intractable nature of the territorial arguments over the site are epitomised by the short wooden ladder that rests on a ledge above the church’s main entrance.
It has been there since the 19th Century because rival groups cannot agree who has the right to take it down.
Under the Status Quo agreement, rights to the windows reached by the ladder belong to the Armenians, but the ledge below is controlled by the Greeks.
Roof falling in?
Also emblematic of the territorial dispute’s intensity is an ongoing row which, unless resolved, could see the church’s roof collapse.
Ethiopians were banished from the church’s interior by the sultan two centuries years ago because they could not pay the necessary taxes, and have been living in a monastery on the roof ever since.
The huts of Deir al-Sultan are at the heart of an ongoing row
The monastery, Deir al-Sultan, now comprises two chapels, an open courtyard, service and storage rooms and a series of tiny huts inhabited by Ethiopian monks. It is reminiscent of a basic African village.
All agree the monastery is in poor shape, but a recent Israeli report said it had reached an “emergency state”, and was at risk of collapsing through the roof into the church.
Israel has said it will pay for the repairs if the Christians can reach agreement on them, but this seems unlikely, due to a long-running ownership dispute between Ethiopian monks and their Egyptian counterparts.
Over the years, this dispute has been played out on various battlefields, including Israel’s highest courts.
So intense has the argument become that when a monk moved a chair out of the sunshine into a shadier area during a heat-wave six years ago, his action was seen as an attempted land-grab.
A fight broke out that left several monks needing hospital treatment.
Such skirmishes may seem nonsensical, but are all too common an occurrence at Christianity’s most revered shrine.
Greta Baghdasaryan is calling for laws protecting women
Armenia is failing to tackle “pervasive” violence and domestic abuse against women, according to a report by rights group Amnesty International.
The group says studies estimate that “over quarter of Armenian women have been hit or beaten by a family member”.
It also warns that, according to some data, about two thirds of women may have experienced psychological abuse.
The BBC has contacted the Armenian foreign ministry but has not received a response to the report.
Amnesty calls on the Armenian authorities to provide support for women leaving violent relationships, and to draft new legislation to combat domestic violence.
Stigma of rape
“Women in Armenia suffer disproportionately from violence and abuse at home and at work, but this is seldom understood as a violation of their basic human rights,” says Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK.
“The preservation of the family unit comes at the expense of women’s rights, their safety and even their lives,” says Ms Allen.
Greta Baghdasaryan, an Armenian woman who suffered domestic violence describes how she felt “afraid of the consequences of complaining”.
“My neighbours saw my bruises but who will listen to them now? It never occurred to me that I could turn to the police,” Greta said.
Amnesty says its report, Countering violence in the family in Armenia, looks at case studies and the background to social attitudes among Armenians.
It is based on testimonies from the databases of Armenian women’s organisations, reports in the Armenian media, and interviews with some women.
It cites the stigma of rape victims and the reluctance of police to investigate domestic violence cases as hurdles.
Amnesty calls for “a real sea-change in attitudes” across Armenia, from initial protection for abused women with shelter, to the criminalisation of domestic violence.
International mediators in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are due to arrive in the Armenian capital Friday after having reportedly discussed the current state of the negotiating process with Azerbaijan’s leadership in Baku.
Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan confirmed to RFE/RL on Thursday that the US, Russian and French cochairmen of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group will be in Yerevan November 14 and will hold a meeting with Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian the same day.
According to the President’s spokesman Samvel Farmanian, the co-chairs will also meet President Serzh Sarkisian while in Armenia.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that while in Baku Matthew Bryza, Yuri Merzlyakov and Bernard Fassier met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev to discuss “the current state and prospects of the negotiations over the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
The troika’s visit to the region comes less than two weeks after the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, together with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, signed a declaration in Moscow pledging to continue and step up the prolonged search for a peaceful political solution to the long-running dispute.
Amid fresh international hopes for a breakthrough in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks Sarkisian left Moscow for Paris where he met with French President Nicholas Sarkozy and then visited Brussels for high-level meetings with European Union and NATO leaders.
The Moscow declaration, in particular, refers to the principles drafted by the Minsk Group and presented to the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the OSCE summit in Madrid in November 2007 as a likely basis for continued talks on a peace accord.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a former predominantly Armenian-populated autonomous region of Soviet Azerbaijan, has been controlled by local ethnic-Armenian forces since the area broke free of Baku’s control following a bloody war that lasted for nearly three years and left thousands on both sides killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. A Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement in 1994 put an end to the hostilities, but sporadic clashes along the line of contact have continued to date.
