Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat walks with Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs George Papandreou, left, and Turkey's Foreign minister Ismail Cem, right, after their meeting at Arafat's office in the West Bank town of Ramallah Thursday April 25, 2002.

Turkish and Greek foreign ministers meet Arafat
Dina Kyriakidou, JERUSALEM, April 25 (Reuters) - Greek and Turkish foreign ministers, on a groundbreaking Middle East peace mission, urged Israelis and Palestinians on Thursday to follow the example of the former historical foes and patch up their differences.

George Papandreou of Greece and Ismail Cem of Turkey told reporters after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat that they had urged the Palestinian leader to denounce terrorism.

Papandreou said it was in the interests of all sides to "get beyond the cynicism and get down to the building of peace, real peace," citing the example of reconciled former foes Turkey and Greece as a source of hope for the troubled Middle East.

Historically bitter enemies, European Union and NATO member Greece and Turkey, NATO's eastern pillar, nearly went to war as recently as 1996.

"In our discussion with President Arafat we suggested it was the moment where all of us, all Palestinians... should come up with a strong condemnation of terrorism and the use of terror as a means of struggle," Cem said. The ministers said they had addressed several "volatile issues," including Israel's besieging Arafat for months at his office in Ramallah and a stalemate between Israeli troops and gunmen at one of Christianity's holiest sites in Bethlehem.

Papandreou said he and Cem had "added some positive ideas and proposals that... could provide a good basis for moving ahead." Cem alluded to their "input" regarding Bethlehem, and elaborated in a later joint interview from Tel Aviv on CNN.

"We were able, it seems, to have an understanding on who will leave or will be sent out -- what will be the conditions of those people within the church, for them to go away," he said.

Nine youths, as well as two corpses, emerged from the church under guard on Thursday as the standoff between Palestinian gunmen inside and Israeli troops continued.

The youths were given medical treatment and were expected to be allowed to go, the army said.

Of the 230 people in the church, dozens are clergy and other civilians.

PEACE CORPS
Cem also raised the idea of establishing a "peace corps" in the region.

Papandreou and Cem were the latest of a few foreign officials whom Israel has allowed to visit Arafat since its tanks pushed into his compound on March 29, when it launched an offensive after a wave of Palestinian attacks in a 19-month-old uprising against occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The other dignitaries were U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and envoy Anthony Zinni, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who met Papandreou and Cem in Tel Aviv, thanked them at a news conference for setting their national differences aside to pursue peace in the Middle East. "Forgetting everything else, you come here. It is a symbol of hope and a message of peace," Peres said.

Turkey has close military and diplomatic relations with Israel, but, as an overwhelmingly Muslim state, supports Palestinian aspirations to independence.

Greece also has long-time sympathy for the Palestinians, given its traditional inclination as a small state to support an underdog, periodic tensions with Israel's main ally, the United States, and concern about Israeli ties with Turkey. Papandreou said he believed that "a secure Israel means a secure Palestinian state, a viable Palestinian state."

Arafat is a hero to the ruling Greek Socialist Party, which invited him as the main speaker to its congress last year. Papandreou's late father, former premier Andreas Papandreou, was a close friend of the Palestinian leader.

Ankara Documents 518,000 Turks Killed by Armenians
Sadullah Özcan, Zaman (Turkey) - April 19, 2002, Ankara-A special research team formed at Turkish Prime Ministry has concluded its study of the Turks killed by Armenian paramilitary troops and brigands during the World War One years. According to the results of the study, 518,105 Turks and Azeris have been killed by the Armenians during the last years of the moribund Ottoman Empire, and the years of Turkish War of National Liberation that followed. The results are compiled from 89 documents, which relied on archives in Azerbaijan as well, and published in 2 volumes.

Turkish government commissioned such a historical research as a reaction to April 24 being declared by the Armenian lobby as the anniversary of the so-called "Armenian genocide."

Most of the research was carried out in the Ottoman archives in Istanbul, State Archives in Ankara and Baku. In Azeri archives a number of reliable documents were found regarding the Turks murdered by the Armenians during WW1. Some of these documents are currently exhibited at Turkish Prime Ministry State Archives General Directorate, in Ankara.

In the first volume, there is detailed information on how 363,141 Turks and Azeris were martyred, including the specific way in which they were killed and the location of their murder. The second volume provides similar detailed information on the murder of 154,964 Turks and Azeris. The worst loss of life, as narrated in Volume Two, took place in Nakchevan in 1920, when 64,408 people were killed due to hunger, illness, cold and Armenian attacks on unarmed civilians. In armed attacks that took place during that year in Nakhchevan, 5,307 people were murdered by the Armenians.

The Armenian lobby, which claims that 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Turks as a result of an official decision to commit genocide, never address the undeniable murders committed by the Armenian troops and brigands helping the Russian armies invade Eastern Turkey, and joining the French troops invading southern Turkey. Turks admit that hundreds of thousands were killed on both sides as a result of the civil-war conditions that reigned during the WW1 years -- but not as a result of a policy of genocide.

Example: Document #38
Some of detailed information contained in Document #38, one of the 89 documents detailing the Turkish losses, is as follows:

September 1919: 3 people killed during attacks and looting in Allahuekber.
September 1919: 12 Turks died under torture in Unye, BlacSea.
February 10, 1920: 100 Turks died in Cildir when mowed down by machine guns.
February 28, 1920: 40 Turks died as a result of an attack on the captured Turkish soldiers in Pozanti, Adana.
March 9, 1920: 120 died in Zarusat when attacked by bayonets and axes.
March 22, 1930: 2,000 Turks died in Suregel and Zarusat.
May 5, 1920: 774 Turks died in Kars as a result of torture, armed attack and bomb explosions.
July 2, 1920: 408 died in Kars and Erzurum in ambushes.
July 2, 1920: 500 drown in Zengibasar when they are caught while fleeing and thrown into the water.
August 1920: 650 massacred in Oltu.
October 15, 1920: 1,387 killed in 99 villages of Bayburt.
October 17, 1920: 9,287 killed in 30 villages of Pasinler.
October 19, 1920: 8,439 murdered in various neighborhoods of Erzurum.
October 26, 1920: 10,693 die under torture in various locations in the vicinity of Kars.
December 7, 1920: 14,620 killed in the various villages of Kars, Digor.
December 14, 1920: 5,337 killed in the 18 villages of Sarikamis.
1920: Almost 70,000 murdered in Nakchevan villages.
1921: 600 killed in the 24 villages of Karakilise.
November 12, 1921: 1,215 killed in ambushes on the 39 villages of Erzurum.

President Bush to Armenians:
"Transcend this venomous pattern"
"Demonizing others lays foundation for a dark cycle of hatred"
The Turkish Times - President George W. Bush, in a message he has sent to the Armenian-American community on the occasion on April 24 (which is observed by some Armenian-Americans to commemorate the "Armenian genocide") not only did not characterize the civil-war struggle between the Ottoman-Turks and Ottoman-Armenians as a "genocide," but he also implied that it is time for the Armenians to transcend "this venomous pattern."

For years the Armenian lobby have been trying very hard to have a U.S. President officially utter the "G-word." France passed a law declaring that events of 1915-23 were a "genocide." Britain, however, last year officially declared that the events were not a "genocide" at all.

"It is a day for recognizing that demonizing others lays foundation for a dark cycle of hatred," President Bush reminded the Armenians. "Transcending this venomous pattern requires painful introspection about the past and wise determination to forge for a new future based on truth and reconciliation. In this spirit, I look forward to Turkey's restoring economic, political and cultural links with Armenia."

Although President Bush invited the Armenians to a "painful introspection about the past," the Armenian lobby refuses to discuss anything about the past since they claim that their own version of Ottoman-Armenian history is beyond any discussion or critical review.

Armenia currently occupies 25% of the territory of Republic of Azerbaijan. Over 1 million Azeris became refugees in their own land when the Armenian forces invaded Nagorno-Karabakh and unilaterally declared it an "independent republic." That's why Turkey is not restoring full diplomatic relations with Armenia, as requested by President Bush.

Despite his diplomatic approach to a sensitive historic controversy, President Bush still disappointed some Turkish-Americans by failing to mention the millions of Turks and Azeris killed by the Armenian rebels in their attempt to stab the Ottoman army in the back and open a path for the invading Russian and French forces. Turkish Prime Ministry has recently documented 518,105 of such Turkish and Azeri victims. Turkish-Americans are baffled in the face of such silence regarding the well-documented Turkish and Azeri casualties suffered in the hands of Armenian troops.

The Armenian lobby has for long pursued a strategy of having their claims officially recognized as "genocide" by the White House and the U.S. Congress. Once such a recognition is secured, the Armenian lobby will press forward with "reparation" payments from the current Turkish Government which did not even exist during when Ottoman-Armenians have joined the occupying Russians in the East and French in the South to seal the fate of the "Sick Man of Europe." The third and last step of the Armenian strategy is to ask for territorial concessions from Turkey. They are hoping to accomplish by political fiat and legislation what they could not achieve by use of arms in 1915-23. (The full text of the message.)

Turkey officially agrees to take over ISAF command
Number of Turkish troops in Afghanistan to increase to 1,000
Turkish News, Ankara, April 30 - The Turkish cabinet officially agreed to take over command of the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan for six months after Great Britain.

After a two-hour meeting of the Turkish cabinet, the Prime Ministry issued a written announcement that Ankara would increase the number of its troops in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

It gave no specific date for Turkey to take over the command, except to indicate that there will be negotiations with the countries that are presently participate in the force and the United Nations to agree on a date.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld sent a letter to Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit, and not to his Turkish counte part Sabahattin Çakmakoglu, assuring Turkey of full U.S. support if it assumes command, private NTV television reported.

Ankara announced its intention 'in principle' to take over the command of the force following strong pressure from the United States and Great Britain.

Earlier this month, British officials said they did not believe that a hand over would take place before June, the Associated Press reported.

Ankara said that it would increase the number of soldiers in the force, which is responsible for patrolling Kabul and its surrounding areas. Ankara indicated in the past that the number may increase to 1,000.

But the Turkish government is extremely reluctant to expand the mandate of the force, although Afghan leaders have been calling for a larger force that patrols other areas of the country that are under control of regional war lords.

The Turkish announcement said that the area of responsibility for the force will not change. Turkey has objected to plans to double the number of peace keepers and their deployment them outside of Kabul for fear that the force would become entangled in local disputes.

Ankara's concerns that the command may prove to be an Page 12 additional financial burden to its crisis-struck economy was largely calmed by promises of U.S. aid. Turkey also insisted that the United States provide cargo planes and that Great Britain leave behind some of the facilities it set up for the peace keepers but private NTV said that the British were reluctant to go along with this idea.

Turkey has participated in past NATO peacekeeping missions, including Kosovo and Bosnia. A Turkish commander [(Ret.) Gen. Cevik Bir] headed the peacekeeping mission in Somalia, but Turkey did not contribute a significant number of ground troops as part of that mission.

Osman "Oz" Bengur is Running for U.S. Congress
The Turkish Times - Osman "Oz" Bengur, a successful Turkish-American banker from Baltimore, Maryland has decided to run for U.S. Congress as a Democrat candidate from 2nd Congressional District. Bengur, who us referred to as a "dark horse candidate" by Maryland media, is campaign on a wide platform that includes many issues ranging from education to homeland security.

Bengur is challenging C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger for the Democratic nomination in a congressional district drawn by the Maryland governor P. Glendening specifically with the term-limited Baltimore County executive in mind. Ruppersberger has won all five elections he's entered during the past 17 years, while Bengur's only campaign was to be an alternate delegate to the 1980 Democratic National Convention from Maine. Bengur won.

Baltimore Sun on Bengur
Andrew A. Green of Baltimore Sun described Bengur as follows: "Oz Bengur insists that he knows what he's doing... He last worked in government in 1983, his opponent has a milelong political resume, and he doesn't yet live in the 2nd Congressional District, but Oz Bengur is no flake. He's got money, he's got a big-name campaign consultant, and he intends to win.

"For some politicians, it's a game of musical chairs. There's not enough chairs, so what do you do?" Bengur says. "This has got to be more than musical chairs and finding a spot for a guy to continue his political career."

Bengur, 53, is an investment banker who wears Ferragamo ties and has a tendency to quote from The New Yorker. He runs nearly every day and finished a 5K last year in a respectable 25 minutes.

He owns a house in Ruxton, but now that legislative maps are finalized, he's planning to move to the 2nd District, which stretches from Randallstown around to Timonium, over through the east side of Baltimore County, around to southern Baltimore City and Anne Arundel County and up to Havre de Grace.

Bengur filed for the seat last month and is planning a campaign around the topics of increasing health care access, improving education and fighting urban sprawl.

To combat Ruppersberger's name recognition, Bengur says he plans to run a vigorous race (he's taken a leave of absence from work to campaign full time) and get his name out at every opportunity. That, and raise a lot of money.

According to a campaign finance report filed last week, Bengur has $297,000 in his campaign treasury.

Ruppersberger reported nearly $1.6 million in a November finance report, but all of that money was raised when he was plotting a run for governor, meaning very little of it can be transferred directly to a federal campaign account.

Almost all of Bengur's money - $290,000 - came from his pocket, but he says he plans to hold a number of fund-raisers in the next two months. He said he expects that between his business contacts and fellow members of Princeton University's Class of 1971, he'll be able to raise enough for the advertising he'll need to be competitive.

"I think it will get people's attention," Bengur says. "It shows we're serious out here."

Another attention-getter is Bengur's campaign consultant: Julius Henson, a bare-knuckled city politico known for take-no-prisoners campaigns.

As a consultant for Lawrence A. Bell III in Bell's 1999 mayoral campaign, Henson organized the disruption of a rally at which prominent city politicians endorsed candidate Martin O'Malley. Henson brought 50 chanting, placard-waving Bell supporters to War Memorial Plaza, drowning out some of the endorsements.

Last fall, city state's attorney candidate Warren A. Brown dropped out of the race after Henson, campaign manager for candidate Lisa Joi Stancil, dug up details about Brown's private life. In private, Bengur's friends question the decision to hire Henson. Bengur says he was aware that the consultant had a checkered reputation, but that when they sat down to discuss the race, Henson laid out step by step how he could win the election. "It was very impressive," Bengur says.

Bengur was born in Montgomery County, lived overseas for several years and then went to high school in Washington. While an English major at Princeton, he says, he was inspired by the notion that government could improve people's lives.

Aside from a stint at Cambridge University in England, where he earned a graduate degree in criminology, Bengur spent a dozen years after college working for state governments in New England, first in juvenile justice and later in energy policy.

Bengur says he became interested in business, and out of a desire to try something new and make a good living for his family, took a job with Alex. Brown & Sons Inc. and moved to Baltimore.

In 1991, he and Charles Bryan, a fellow Alex. Brown alum, founded an investment firm, Bengur Bryan & Co., which works with clients that are too small for traditional investment banks. Through it all, Bengur talked about getting into politics, Bryan says.

"It's something he's always wanted to do, and he feels like he's got a shot at it with the open seat," Bryan says. "He'll be an excellent congressman. He's very intelligent, very caring and a very thoughtful person." (Who is Oz Bengur?)