Azerbaijan leaves over 50 countries behind on index of involvement in international trade

Azerbaijan, Baku, August 27 / Trend Capital I. Khalilova /
Azerbaijan holds 70-th place of 121 possible places in rating of the World Economic Forum (WEF), reflecting easiness of goods transportation across the border. Singapore and Hong Kong became leaders. Azerbaijan left Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan behind among CIS countries.
Index of involvement in the international trade, calculated by WEF, is based on several factors. These factors include access to domestic and foreign markets, administrative infrastructure at the border, the efficiency of customs work and others. Azerbaijan has a favorable business climate. So the country with an index of 4.68 held the 46-th place. The situation is well with access to the domestic market (the 52-th place, the index - 4.07). According to the World Bank and IFC, Azerbaijan was announced a country-reformer N1 in 2009. It was connected with great changes to improve the business climate and facilitate the business terms.
According to the WEF, development of trade in the country is hampered on a category 'customs efficiency'. Therefore the country has held the 103-th palce (index -2.91), though the maximum rate of import customs duties in the country hits 15 percent.
However, high uncertainty of crisis development does not give confidence that countries-leaders of rating will not change its principles of openness. Many countires have used protectionism. If this process gets out of control, the whole world trade will collapse. It will inevitably lead to the second Great Depression. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan does not see any need to support national production in using protectionist policy.
"At present, there are enough normative-legal acts to ensure development of domestic production, and in general, economic development in Azerbaijan," the State Customs Committee said.
Azerbaijan is not wiling to take this action because such a policy, on the one hand, promotes development of national production and protection of domestic producer, but on the other hand, can lead to stagnation in the economy, strengthening of monopolies and reduction of national goods competitiveness.
WEF hopes that barriers to access the market access will be reduced in the process of joining the WTO. Azerbaijan continues to hold active negotiations to join the WTO. Azerbaijan has already held VII round of meetings with the organization's member-countries.
According to the World Bank, 17 countries of the G-20 have introduced new protectionist measures by spring 2009. The USA with its anti-crisis campaign "Buy American" was among the first.
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Is Russia-Turkey union able to solve Nagorno-Karabakh conflict? Trend News commentator

European Desk Commentator Elmira Tariverdiyeva
The strengthening of relations between Russia and Turkey is beneficial not just for the two countries. Turkey has had many long-standing problems in its relations with Armenia. Russia traditionally has had a special influence on Armenia. Moreover, Russia has huge interests lying in Turkey's fraternal country - Azerbaijan.
There is a hope that the countries will help each other in promoting the process to solve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict amid increasing cooperation between Ankara and Moscow.
"Close relations between Turkey and Russia will positively impact the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict ", Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said live on Haber7 TV channel, Anadolu news agency reported.
Davutoglu said that the countries intend, and are able, to bring the Black Sea and Caucasus regions out from under the status of conflict zones. "Turkey has hopes in the Caucasus from the point of view of Turkish-Armenian, and Armenian-Azerbaijani relations," he said.
The arithmetic is simple: Turkey and Russia are more interested in solving the frozen Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict now than they were before.
Russia, which participated in the August conflict in Georgia, must renew its image as a peacemaker. The best way to prove it is to help the two Caucasian countries settle the long-running territorial conflict. As an important regional player and a co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group, Russia has the necessary chances to fulfill this goal.
Moreover, Moscow needs close relations with Baku in the energy sector. The West's great dream, the Nabucco gas pipeline, cannot be realized without Azerbaijani gas.
In a recent article The Wall Street Journal concluded that the role of Turkmenistan in the Nabucco pipeline project was too exaggerated, because Ashgabat has bound itself into a 25-year-agreement with Russia, as well as building a massive pipeline to China - pumping 40 billion cubic meters.
Thus, the newspaper states that Azerbaijan has been considered by Western countries as the main supplier of gas in the Nabucco project. However, Moscow, wishing to remain the key monopolist on the gas market, has made great efforts to conclude agreements with Baku to buy Azerbaijani gas in volumes as large as possible.
The Kremlin can gain Baku's favor by putting pressure on Armenia, its main partner in the South Caucasus.
Turkey has its own interests in solving the long-running territorial dispute. Firstly, Ankara is also competing as an important regional player in such a strategically important area as the Caucasus. A security and cooperation platform in the region, proposed by Turkey a year ago, became the main political initiative in this area.
It is significant that Turkey and Russia, countries interested in regional influence in the Caucasus, have become possible participants in the project.
Turkey's second aim in solving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is to overcome its obstacles in joining the EU.
Despite Europe consistently emphasizing the importance of relations with Ankara, Turkey still remains outside the EU enlargement process.
Besides a large amount of formal criteria that Ankara must fulfill, the EU imposes requirements concerning the reunification of Cyprus along with the recognition of the "Armenian genocide" in the Ottoman Empire and closure of its border with Armenia.
But settling relations with Yerevan and restoring transport communications are impossible without solving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Even the "road map" signed in April does not cause optimism among observers. It aims to neutralize bilateral relations.
It should be noted that Yerevan even made assurances that the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations is not linked with Turkey's recognition of alleged Armenian "genocide".
It hopes that Nagorno-Karabakh will not become a stumbling point for Turkey.
It is a chance for Turkey not only to settle relations, but to bring an end to a long-standing historical dispute. However, the country's leading figures have repeatedly stated that neutralizing relations is impossible until the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is solved.
To sum it up, several regional players will win out by solving the territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two most powerful players, Turkey and Russia, should exert maximum efforts for the sake of their own interests.
Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at trend@trend.az

Turkey - where next?

In January 2009, the EBRD commissioned two Italian consultants to study Turkey's sustainable energy market in preparation for future investments. One of the consultants, Filippo Checcucci of the APRIambiente SpA, reports on the findings of the study funded by the Italian government.
What is the state of Turkish energy market?
Turkey is a major energy importer. More than 75 per cent of the energy is supplied by imports, mainly from Russia. The use of natural gas - newly introduced into the Turkish economy - has grown rapidly with an average increase of 14 per cent annually.
The Turkish energy system is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Their share in the total energy consumption increased from 72 per cent in 2000 to 82 per cent in 2007. Renewable energy sources make up about 18 per cent of the total primary energy supply.
One major concern is the increasing energy intensity of Turkey. In 2008, Turkey was twice more energy intensive than the average OECD countries. Metal production is the most energy intensive industry, followed by the production of refined petroleum and non-metallic mineral products such as cement, lime, glass and ceramics.
Electricity consumption in Turkey has decreased by 4 per cent in the last six months due to the global financial crisis. But the energy demand forecast from 2008 to 2017, based on the low demand scenario, is estimated to reach more than 350 TWh/year, a serious increase from 198 TWh in 2008 and 151 TWh in 2004.
Turkey is now facing the threat of electricity shortage and it is vital that the country boosts its production capacities by using national resources, including renewables, and managing its energy demand. On the other hand, there is international pressure on Turkey to engage in the fight against climate change and this is another reason for the country to invest in renewable energy sources and energy efficiency.
What role can renewable energy play in the country's future?
Turkey has great potential for developing renewable energy investment projects. There is already an appetite for such investments. For example about 250 license applications for renewable energy projects have been submitted in the last two years to the country’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA).
The Turkish government has ambitious plans to develop about 60 GW in renewable energy by 2023. The main sources are hydro, wind and solar energy. Energy legislation is also more advanced than in the neighbouring Western Balkans.
In the short to medium term, the potential market for approved projects to finance is up to €2.6 billion in hydro and up to €2.9 billion in the wind sector. Turkey has potential in small hydropower development, even if its growth suffers from administrative weaknesses and planning. There is also wind power potential; in particular, large plants are economically and financially sustainable. But two important bottlenecks are the lack of local technology to develop such projects and a slow response from EMRA in reviewing applications for licenses.
What financing is already available for renewable energy and energy efficiency investments?
The local banking sector has financed renewable energy projects for over five years. Some banks provide financing from their own resources and others from financing facilities provided by international financial institutions (IFI) such as the World Bank and the European Investment Bank.
Hydroelectric and wind power projects are two sectors with growing demand for financing. The market leader in financing such projects is the German Commerzbank, which is now financing 167 megawatts of wind-generated electric power in Turkey, with lending totalling some €190 million. Out of 45 existing banks in Turkey, eight are involved in renewable energy financing, with investments of over €5 billion since 2005.
The Turkish government has developed some incentive schemes for energy efficiency measures, such as grants for energy efficiency consultancy services and investments. However there is little progress in energy efficiency investments in Turkey because local banks lack the know-how for such investments and consumers are not yet aware of the benefits.
What recommendations did you put forward to the EBRD?
Several international institutions are already financing renewable energy investments in Turkey. The EBRD could coordinate investments with these IFIs but more importantly take the lead in creating a market for energy efficiency investments as well as unexplored renewable energy sources such as landfill gas recovery.
In particular, the EBRD should be active on different levels. On the local level, by increasing the awareness and information about energy efficiency in all sectors, through direct marketing activities, targeted donor funding to municipalities, businesses and local banks, and financing directly or indirectly green projects and pilot projects, through direct lending facilities, equity and credit lines. On the national level, the EBRD should support the process of regulating the energy market in line with the EU.

Two Women’, a film from Iran

Soniah Kamal
‘Two Women’ follows the lives of friends Fereshteh (Niki Karimi) and Roya (Marila Zarei) over a decade. As college students, Roya approaches the academically above average Feresteh for tutoring sessions and their friendship develops rapidly in a lovely montage; paradise, however, never lasts. Feresteh is being stalked by a frighteningly violent young man (there is a thoroughly satisfying scene on a bus where she berates him), the university shuts down, and thanks to her small minded father her once promising future takes a downward turn all too real.
As such ‘Two Women’ should not conveniently be categorized as a mere film about women’s rights; it is so much more and Tahmineh Milani, the writer and director, has done a beautiful job without resorting to male bashing or melodrama: there are decent men and there is no chest beating, hysterical weeping, or long diatribes of ‘woe is me’. Instead, simple acts convey heartbreak such as a mother patting the empty bed of her kidnapped children, and Niki Karimi’s stellar expressions whenever her screen husband insults her in front of her children. In each scene be it back story or present day, the camera lingers just long enough to deliver the intent and then briskly skips on without a single misstep or lag thanks to Mostafa Kherghehpoosh’s excellent editing skills.
‘Two Women’ was released to acclaim in 1999, and ten years later it could be set in Pakistan scene to scene with the added detail of helpless/unhelpful neighbors watching from doorways as desperate women run down the street towards literal and symbolic blind ends. The end reminded me of the adage ‘better late than never’, and why it’s not always true. This is a film which should not be missed.

N Koreans toiling in Russia's timber camps

Simon Ostrovsky has travelled to remote far eastern Russia and obtained rare footage of North Koreans who are working there as labourers under an agreement between their secretive Stalinist state and a company run by British businessmen.
Watch Simon Ostrovsky's film
To the West, North Korea is a pariah state, best known for its secrecy, famines, belligerent politics and its leader's brutality.
At home, North Koreans live under total government control and the watchful eye of the Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il.
But in the Amur region of Russia, almost 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from the border, North Korea has created a home away from home at a series of remote logging camps in which nearly 1,500 workers are employed.
I travelled to one of the camps deep in the forest. A giant monument bearing the words "Our greatest leader Kim Il-sung lives with us forever" stood in the middle.
One of the buildings had a sign which read "Laboratory of Kim Il-sung's Theory" a commonly used slogan found on North Korean administration blocks. The camp even had its own theatre.
Further into the forest we found a group of North Koreans hard at work. They lived in a mobile wagon, decorated with portraits of the North Korean leaders.
Although reluctant to speak, one told me that he earned the equivalent of $200 per month. Another said that he earned $1 for each truck he loaded and that he could load up to nine per day, but he had not been paid since May.
Production targets

The North Koreans work long hours in the forests
To try to find out who employed the North Koreans I travelled to Tynda, where the headquarters of the region's logging operations are based.
I met Sergey Sarnavsky, the director of a small local timber firm which has a contract with Association No 2, a state-owned North Korean organisation.
"The Koreans work year round with two days off per year," he told me. "All the other days are working days no matter what the weather conditions, they always work.
"The Koreans work for the government and their communist party, they've got production targets," he said. "If the quota is filled then everything is ok. If it is not fulfilled, well then they've got their Communist Party of North Korea, and everybody gets punished from the managers down to the worker who didn't fulfil the quota."
Escape

The logs cause injuries. The drivers drop logs and people get killed. Because people are so cold, they can't avoid falling trees and are killed.
Former labourer
Many North Korean labourers have tried to escape the camps. Over the last two decades thousands have abandoned their work and now live in constant fear of arrest and deportation to North Korea.
Branded enemies of the people by their homeland they are wanted by Russian police and their own country's security services.
One worker, who ran away in the 1990s and had been given refuge by a Russian family, told me about life working in the camps, where winter temperatures regularly drop to 30C below zero:
"I was working endless hours. Twelve hours is normal in North Korea, but working 12 hours at the camps is very hard. In winter it's very cold... It's hard to work on an empty stomach. But the living conditions were the worst part.
"The logs cause injuries. The drivers drop logs and people get killed. Because people are so cold, they can't avoid falling trees and are killed."
'Treated as traitors'

Svetlana Gannushkina helps former loggers who escaped from the camps
Russian human rights organisations are working with North Korean defectors. They say that often, after months of work, the labourers are underpaid and sometimes not paid at all.
Svetlana Gannushkina's organisation is assisting some two dozen former loggers who escaped before 2001 and are now living in hiding. I asked her what would happen if they were handed over to the North Korean authorities.
"They can expect terrible suffering, they can expect a cruel death," she said. "We know of cases when people in the moment of their detention have simply, killed themselves. These people and their families become pariahs in their own country. They are treated as traitors."
Commercial benefits
So who benefits commercially now from North Korean labour in Russia's Far East?
The North Korean state, which provides the labour through Association No 2, take 35% of the proceeds from their logging operations in Russia - approximately $7m per year.
The remainder goes to a firm called Tynda Les, who are owned by the Russian Timber Group - the largest logging firm in the region with around 1,400 North Koreans working on its sites.
The Russian Timber Group was founded in 2004 by British businessman, Peter Hambro and a Russian business partner. Together they bought up a number of forestry rights across Russia covering an area roughly the size of Belgium.
I asked Russian Timber Group's CEO, Peter Hambro's son Leo, if they had any control over the loggers' welfare.
He told me that the Russian Timber Group makes sure that the company which provides the workers complies with the Russian labour code and that they get regularly inspected. He also said that Russian Timber Group had no involvement in how much the workers are paid.
"There is always going to be criticism... of any involvement with North Korea, especially as its been flagged by people like President Obama as an axis of evil," he told me.
"It is not in our interest - in our public relations interest - to continue our involvement with the North Korean workers. But at the moment our product sells... and we are happy to continue our involvement because they are workers who are prepared to work while there is timber to be sold at good values."

ڈیرہ بگٹی:شہر ہے یا چھاؤنی؟

ڈیرہ بگٹی کی ویران ہندو بازار میں سے گزرتے ہوئے خیال آیا کہ بلوچستان کے تاریخی شہر کی زندگی کہاں غائب ہوگئی ہے۔ ہندو بازار نواب اکبر بگٹی کے بنگلے کے قریب واقع ہے اور شہر میں فوجی آپریشن کے قریباً تین سال مکمل ہونے کے باوجود وہ بازار دوبارہ آباد نہیں ہوسکا ہے۔
جبکہ شہر میں ڈی سی او کے دفتر اور بنگلے کے قریب درجن بھر دکانیں کھلی ہوئی ہیں۔ ان دوکانوں اور سرکاری دفتروں کے درمیان چوراہے کو پاکستان چوک کا نام دیا گیا ہے۔ چوک پر سیمنٹ کی ایک ڈیزائن بنا دی گئی ہے جس کو پاکستانی پرچم کے سبز اور سفید رنگ دیے گئے ہیں۔
کلِک سوئی: حالات معمول کی طرف مگر خوف برقرار
ڈیرہ بگٹی میں تعینات مختلف حکومتی اہلکار بتاتے ہیں کہ شہر میں فوج کی آمد کے بعد قریبی پہاڑوں پر فوجی اہلکاروں نے ’پاکستان زندہ آباد‘ اور ’پاک فوج چاق و چوبند‘ جیسے نعرے لکھے ہیں۔ ان پہاڑوں پر کچھ تعمیراتی کام اب بھی جاری ہے۔ معلوم کرنے پر بتایا گیا کہ جشن آزادی قریب ہونے کی وجہ سے شہر کے اوپر سائے کی طرح موجود پہاڑی کو پاکستانی پرچم میں تبدیل کیا جائیگا۔
ڈیرہ بگٹی میں گزشتہ چند برسوں سے آپریشن میں مصروف فوج کے قصے کہانیاں سنتے ہوئے جب ہم نواب اکبر بگٹی کی قبر کے قریب پہنچے تو میں نے وہاں جانے اور فوٹو وغیرہ بنانے کی اجازت طلب کی۔ مگر حکومتی اہلکاروں نے انکار کر دیا۔ سرکاری جیپ کے ڈرائیور نے رفتار تیز کردی اور قریبی چوراہے پر ایف سی یعنی فرنٹیئر کانسٹبلری کی چوکی کی طرف اشارہ کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ یہ لوگ اجازت نہیں دیں گے۔
جس دن ہم ڈیرہ بگٹی میں ایک دن کا مختصر دورہ کر رہے تھے وہ جمعہ کا دن تھا اور عام لوگ نواب اکبر بگٹی کے بنگلے سے ملحقہ مسجد میں نماز ادا کرنے جا رہے تھے۔ مگر ان میں سے کسی نے نواب اکبر بگٹی کی قبر پر جانے اور پھول رکھنے یا فاتحہ کرنے کی کوشش نہیں کی۔ مجھے ایسا لگا شاید ان کے ساتھ بھی وہ پابندی لاگو ہوگی جو ہمارے ساتھ کی گئی ہے۔
کوٹ بگٹی کے اندر ان تمام عمارتوں پر گولیوں کی شدید فائرنگ اور گولے بارے کے نشانات واضح ہیں۔ لگتا ہے یہاں شدید آمنے سامنے کا مقابلہ ہوا تھا؟ میری اس رائے کو ایک بلوچ سکیورٹی اہلکار نے رد کرتے ہوئے ایف سی والوں کی طرف اشارہ کیا اور کہا کہ جب نواب صاحب نکل چکے تھے تو عمارتیں خالی تھیں اور انہوں نے اپنے نمبرز بڑھانے کے لیے در و دیوار پر گولیاں برسائی تھیں۔
سفر میں شریک ایک دوست نے افسوس سے کہا کہ یہ کیسی حب الوطنی متعارف کروائی جا رہی ہے ’ان کے پہاڑوں پرفوج اور سبز پرچم اور قبر پر پابندی لگائی جا رہی ہے‘۔
نواب اکبر بگٹی کا بنگلہ جو عام طور پر بند رہتا ہے وہاں داخل ہوتے ہی مجھے ایسے لگا جیسے کسی آثار قدیمہ کی عمارت کے اندر داخل ہورہے ہیں۔ مرکزی دروازہ مضبوط لوہے کی چادر کا بنا ہوا جو ایک شخص نہیں کھول سکتا۔ وہاں ایک ایف سی اہلکار تعینات تھا جس نے عام سپاہیوں کی طرح دروازے کے قریبی کمرے کی دیواروں پر اپنی خوشخطی بہتر بنانے اور شعر لکھنے کے تجربات کیے ہیں۔
ہمیں مرکزی دروازے کے قریب کھودی گئی خندقیں بھی دکھائی گئیں اور ایک کمرہ جو بقول سکیورٹی افسر نجی جیل تھا وہ بھی دکھایا گیا جہاں قیدیوں کی چپلیں اور رضائیاں تاحال پڑی تھیں۔
نواب اکبر بگٹی کے قلعے نماء کوٹ کے اندر ایک نہیں کئی بنگلے ہیں جن میں سے ایک قدیمی نواب محراب خان کا تعمیر کردہ بنگلہ بھی ہے۔ جبکہ نواب اکبر بگٹی، ان کےصاحبزادے سلیم بگٹی اور پوتے برہمداغ بگٹی کے رہائشی کمرے بھی دکھائے گئے۔
کوٹ بگٹی کے اندر ان تمام عمارتوں پر گولیوں کی شدید فائرنگ اور گولے بارے کے نشانات واضح ہیں۔ لگتا ہے یہاں شدید آمنے سامنے کا مقابلہ ہوا تھا؟ میری اس رائے کو ایک بلوچ سکیورٹی اہلکار نے رد کرتے ہوئے ایف سی والوں کی طرف اشارہ کیا اور کہا کہ جب نواب صاحب نکل چکے تھے تو عمارتیں خالی تھیں اور انہوں نے اپنے نمبرز بڑھانے کے لیے در و دیوار پر گولیاں برسائی تھیں۔
بگٹی نوابوں کے ان رہائشی کمروں میں گزری ہوئی زندگی کے آثار اب بھی نمایاں ہیں۔ کچھ بیڈ رومز کے گدے، ٹائلز لگے باتھ رومز اور ائرکنڈیشنرز موجود ہیں۔ ایک کمرے میں بہت ساری ٹوٹی ہوئی چوڑیاں اور زنانہ کپڑے موجود تھے مگر وہ فرنیچر، کتابیں اور قدیمی تلواریں اور بندوقیں ان بنگلوں سے غائب تھیں جو کبھی ان رہائشی کمروں کی دیواروں کا حسن رہی ہیں۔ وہ نوادرات کہاں ہیں کسی کو کچھ علم نہیں۔
برہمداغ بگٹی کے رہائشی کمرے تین چار تھے مگر ان میں سے ایک کمرے میں تہہ خانہ بھی تھا جہاں داخل ہونے کے لیے سیڑھیاں بنی ہوئی تھیں اور سیڑھی کی آخر میں ایک بڑا سا بھالو رکھا ہوا تھا۔ مگر اس سے کھیلنے والا کوئی موجود نہیں ہے۔
بگٹی نوابوں کے ان رہائشی کمروں میں گزری ہوئی زندگی کے آثار اب بھی نمایاں ہیں۔ کچھ بیڈ رومز کے گدے، ٹائلز لگے باتھ رومز اور ائرکنڈیشنرز موجود ہیں۔ ایک کمرے میں بہت ساری ٹوٹی ہوئی چوڑیاں اور زنانہ کپڑے موجود تھے مگر وہ فرنیچر، کتابیں اور قدیمی تلواریں اور بندوقیں ان بنگلوں سے غائب تھیں جو کبھی ان رہائشی کمروں کی دیواروں کا حسن رہی ہیں۔ وہ نوادرات کہاں ہیں کسی کو کچھ علم نہیں۔
نواب سلیم اکبر بگٹی کے بنگلے کے ساتھ بہت بڑا لان اور چڑیا گھر بھی بنا ہوا تھا مگر اب اس کے صرف آثارموجود ہیں۔ چڑیا گھر کے جانور اور باغیچے کے پھول تو غائب ہیں۔
ڈیرہ بگٹی میں حکومتی اہلکاروں سے دوپہر کے کھانے کے دوران محسوس ہوا کہ ایف سی اہلکاروں کی اس جنگ زدہ شہر میں بھی موجیں ہیں۔ ڈیرہ بگٹی میں ایف سی نے ایک چھوٹا سا کاروبار کیبل سسٹم کا کھول رکھا ہے جہاں بہت صاف ستھرے بھارتی اور پاکستانی چینل دکھائے جاتے ہیں۔
ڈیرہ بگٹی میں پاکستان کا کوئی بھی موبائل نیٹ ورک کام نہیں کرتا۔ بتایا گیا ہے کہ یو فون والوں نے کوشش کی تھی مگر سکیورٹی حکام نے انہیں منع کردیا اور وہ اپنے ٹاور وغیرہ اکھاڑ کر لے گئے۔ پی ٹی سی ایل کا نیٹ ورک ہے مگر وہ بھی ہفتے میں دو تین دن خراب رہتا ہے۔

ڈیرہ کی طرف سفر کرتے ہوئے راستے میں آپ کو شہری آبادی بہت کم نظرآئے گی
ڈیرہ کی زندگی پاکستان کے دیگر شہروں سے بالکل ہی مختلف ہے۔ ملتان کے ایک سب انسپکٹر کی زبانی کہ جب وہ ڈیوٹی سے فارغ ہونے کے بعد کشمور میں سے انڈس ہائی وی پر سوار ہوتے ہیں تو پتہ چلتا ہے کہ دنیا میں آگئے ہیں ورنہ وہ تو ایک خلاء میں دن بسر کر رہے ہیں۔
شام ہونے سےقبل ہی ہمیں واپسی کا مشورہ دیا گیا۔ اتنی جلدی کا سبب پوچھا تو سکیورٹی اہلکاروں نے بارودی سرنگوں کے خدشے کا اظہار کیا۔ انہوں نے بتایا کہ شام چھ بجے اور صبح دس بجے تک سوئی ڈیرہ بگٹی سڑک بند کی جاتی ہے تاکہ ممکنہ بارودی سرنگوں سے سڑک کو صاف کیا جائے۔
ڈیرہ بگٹی میں نواب اکبر بگٹی کی کمی تو آپ کو اس دورے میں محسوس ہوگی مگر حالات ایسے بدلے ہیں کہ ان کی ایک تصویر بھی شہر کے کسی کونے میں موجود نہیں ہے۔
ڈیرہ کی طرف سفر کرتے ہوئے راستے میں آپ کو شہری آبادی بہت کم نظر آئے گی مگر سکیوری فورسز کی گاڑیوں کی آمد و رفت اور چیک پوسٹیں اتنی زیادہ نظر آئیں گے کہ آپ خود سے سوال کرنے لگیں گے کہ یہ شہرہے یا چھاؤنی؟
سڑک کے دونوں اطراف ساتھ چلتے پہاڑوں کے سلسلے میں سے اگر کوئی ہے تو وہ فوج اور ایف سی کی چیک پوسٹیں ہیں جو گزشتہ چند برسوں سے ان پہاڑوں کا مستقل تعارف بن گئی ہیں۔

Bugti’s murder: call for putting Musharraf, Shaukat on trial

HYDERABAD: The president of the Sindh Hari Porhiyat Council, Punhal Sario, demanded on Wednesday that Pervez Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz should be arrested and tried in a court of law for the murder of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.
Speaking at the 3rd death anniversary of Akbar Bugti organised by his party in Qasimabad, Mr Sario called for an end to army operation in Balochistan and recovery of all missing persons.
He said that interference of army and secret agencies in the political affairs had all but destroyed the country. Pakistan could not survive unless the federating units were given their due rights, he said.
He alleged the political leadership of Balochistan and Sindh had been eliminated in order to usurp the provinces’ natural resources and cited examples of Benazir Bhutto, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, Nazir Abbasi, Akbar Bugti, Nouroz Khan, Balach Mari and others.
He urged Sindhi and Baloch people to unite on one platform and launch a joint struggle for their rights.
Awami Party chief Dr Hassan Nasir said that people were the real fountainhead of power and they should join hands to foil all conspiracies against them and the country.
He said that Nawab Akbar Bugti had always supported the federation but he was forced to adopt the path of resistance due to injustices.
He said the democratic forces had always been pushed against the wall and ridiculed ongoing talks on the NFC award and provincial autonomy.
He believed the tillers of the land, workers and middle class could defeat the rulers and establish a just system in the country.
The gathering condemned raid on pro-Balochistan Urdu newspaper ‘Aftab’ and ban on its publication and criticised torture of journalists.
Later, a large number of people held a demonstration outside the press club, demanding arrest of and deterrent punishment to the murderers of Akbar Bugti.
JSQM: The Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz chairman Basheer Khan Qureshi and office-bearers Faqir Imdad Mangi, Sagar Hanif Burdi and Najaf Laghari have paid tributes to Nawab Akbar Bugti for his sacrifice for the rights of Balochistan and said his sacrifice is a source of encouragement and inspiration for the patriotic people of Balochistan and Sindh.
They said in a joint statement issued on Wednesday that the national movement of Sindh was proud of Akbar Bugti and added that they would always support the Baloch national movement.
The leaders of Sindh and Balochistan who were doing federal politics should learn a lesson from Bugti’s sacrifices, they said.
They said that the system in Pakistan had always finished off the benefactors of the country.
Meanwhile, the JSSF leaders Habib Bhutto, Atta Vistrio, Hemo Kalani and others called upon student organisations to work together to improve academic atmosphere in the educational institutions.
In Sanghar, a large number of Bugti tribesmen observed the third death anniversary of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in Kot Nawab village on Wednesday.
They brought out a rally and demanded registration of murder case against Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz and the then chief minister and governor of Balochistan.

Restive Balochistan

Three years after security forces killed the Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, Balochistan remains far from normal. Baloch nationalists observed a ‘black day’ yesterday as life ground to a halt across the province.
Violence claimed at least two lives; arson and bombings aimed at vital government installations were also reported. These are not just symptoms of the hurt the Baloch feel at the state’s apathy towards their grievances. They also indicate that the current situation can develop into a bigger problem if it is not tackled by Islamabad with foresight and wisdom. Unfortunately, the Balochistan government, too, has been looking the other way instead of assuming a more proactive role in bridging the political divide in the province which saw the nationalists boycott the 2008 elections.
Baloch nationalists are very angry at the disappearances of their cadres and the harassment of their workers and some of their leaders in exile have also called for independence. But the family of the slain sardar has still not given up its quest for justice.
On the family’s plea, a court in Balochistan has ordered the police to register a murder case seeking justice for the killing of Mr Bugti. Gen Musharraf (retd) and his top provincial executives have been named as accused. This is an indication that if the law is allowed to take its course and justice is seen to be done, there is hope of Baloch nationalists coming back to the national mainstream.
It is time the government actively engaged the nationalists in a meaningful and comprehensive dialogue aimed at normalising the restive situation. As a confidence-building measure, security forces must be made more accountable for their actions. They must be made to shun their gung-ho, highhanded approach, which is greatly responsible for the sorry situation in Balochistan today.

Prince of Jihad’ arrested in Indonesia

JAKARTA: The owner of a radical Islamist website who calls himself the ‘Prince of Jihad’ in his blog postings has been arrested in connection with the Jakarta hotel bombings, police and a lawyer said Wednesday.

Counter-terror squad officers arrested Muhamad Jibril Abdurahman, alias Muhamad Ricky Ardan bin Mohammad Iqbal, near Jakarta late Tuesday and also raided the office of his website, Arrahmah.com, a police spokesman said.

Police believe the Pakistan-educated suspect helped channel funds from abroad to finance the July 17 twin suicide bombings on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that killed nine people, including six foreigners.

The source of the funds are not known, but police have said they are investigating the possibility the money came from Al-Qaeda brokers in the Middle East, among others.

Muhamad Jibril is well-known in Indonesian radical circles as a publicist of extremist material, and is the son of a firebrand Islamist cleric who has been linked in the past to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror network.

In addition to the website, he edited a publication called Jihadmagz which espoused jihad or ‘holy war’ against the West.

‘He chose his jihad path through working in the media. He felt there were many Muslims who were being suppressed everywhere and there was a war of thoughts,’ Indonesian extremism analyst Noor Huda Ismail said.

‘Through Arrahmah and Jihadmagz he felt that he could counter one-sided news on Islam. His media has been productive in its work.’ Police said Muhamad Jibril was an accomplice of Saudi national Al Khalil Ali, who was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of smuggling money from abroad to pay for the attacks.

Muhamad Jibril, believed to be aged in his mid-20s, is the son of Indonesian cleric Abu Jibril who was arrested in Malaysia in 2001 on suspicion of being a senior JI member.

The father was deported to Indonesia where he served about five months in jail for using a forged passport. He now runs a website, Abujibriel.com, which also supports radical Islamist groups and spouts jihadist ideology.

‘Jihad and terrorism are not something to be afraid of or avoided, because to cause terror to Allah’s enemies is the instruction of Islam,’ said an article by the ‘Prince of Jihad’ which appeared on both websites after the July 17 attacks.

Abu Jibril’s lawyer, Yusuf Sembiring, confirmed that Muhamad Jibril was the author of articles on Arrahmah.com and Abujibriel.com attributed to the ‘Prince of Jihad.’

‘Abu Jibril said his son is not involved in whatever the police are accusing him of. He said Muhamad Jibril is not involved in the hotel bombings,’ the lawyer told AFP.

‘The Arrahmah website contains articles on facts about jihad... to tell people what jihad is all about. It’s not a tool to spread terrorism.’ Police however said they were investigating the website for possible breaches of the criminal code related to inciting hatred. The website was offline Wednesday.

Jibril’s detention brings to five the number of people in custody over the hotel attacks, the worst in the mainly Muslim country since 2005.

Five other suspects are being sought, including Malaysian alleged mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top, who was reported killed in a police raid earlier this month but remains at large.

Another five members of the cell have been killed, including the operational planner who worked as a florist at the hotels, police said.

Analysts have said that if the funding for the attacks came from abroad a likely source would be Al-Qaeda, but police have made no such connection.— AFP

Shanghai seeks end to 'Chinglish'

The authorities in the Chinese city of Shanghai are starting a campaign to try to spot and correct badly phrased English on signs in public places.
Chinglish, as the inaccurate use of the language is known, has long been a source of embarrassment for the authorities there.
It is also a source of amusement to foreign visitors.
But Shanghai wants to spruce up its image. It is expecting millions of visitors for the World Expo fair.
Student volunteers will check the English on signs throughout the city.
If they suspect the translation is less than accurate they will inform the government. Then the bureaucrats will request that whoever is responsible corrects the mistake.
You can find Chinglish all over the city. Often it can be blamed on software used to translate Chinese automatically.
Please bump your head carefully
Sign in hotel lift

Sometimes you can see what the author was getting at, such as the sign that warns people to "keep valuables snugly", and "beware the people press close to you designedly".
Then there are signs where they have mistranslated a crucial word.
One in a hotel lift advises people "please leave your values at the front desk".
Sometimes they have just got it the wrong way round, such as on the sign in the stairwell of a department store asking shoppers to "please bump your head carefully".
My favourites though, are those which get more surreal, like the one on the Shanghai metro from the public security bureau that reads: "If you are stolen, call the police at once."

Modern views on the Nazi-Soviet pact

In the latest of a series of articles marking the outbreak of World War II 70 years ago, BBC Russian affairs analyst Steven Eke analyses how opinions on the Nazi-Soviet pact have changed over the years.

The Nazi-Soviet pact remains a highly emotive issue
In recent years, the tone and content of disagreements between Russia and the West over interpretations of World War II have seemed reminiscent of the Cold War.
Official Russia may not have many supporters abroad of its increasingly Sovietised, if not revisionist, approach. But it is one that Russia's own citizens appear to strongly support.
The original German-language copy of the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on the Nazi-Soviet division of Europe was seized by Soviet troops in 1945 and removed to Moscow.
The Soviet government understood why the document could have a devastating effect on the image of the USSR as the nation that had done - and suffered - the most for the defeat of the Nazi curse.
This is why the secret protocol's existence was officially denied until 1989. Even Vyacheslav Molotov, one of the signatories, went to his grave categorically rejecting foreign reports of it.
Pact condemned
The teaching of history developed by the Soviet authorities in the post-war decades instead chose to portray the pact as a masterstroke of Soviet diplomacy, one that prevented an alliance between Nazi Germany and Western capitalist nations against the USSR.

In 1989 Soviet lawmakers condemned the pact
In 1989, lawmakers in the Soviet Union's first, quasi-democratic parliament, passed a resolution unequivocally condemning the pact. And that, essentially, was the end of efforts in official Russia to address the document's geopolitical legacy.
The statement released by the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service, just ahead of the 70th anniversary of the signing of the pact, strongly suggests Russian official history has reverted to Soviet, if not at times, Stalinist, orthodoxies.
Russia's leading opinion pollster, VTsIOM, asked ordinary Russians what they thought of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact ahead of the anniversary.
Some 57% of those questioned said they believed there was "nothing reprehensible" in the agreement.
Just 14% agreed with the western interpretation of the pact as dividing Europe between two totalitarian systems.
After all, in the neighbouring countries - those that had been partitioned or subjected to border shifts and mass repressions as a direct result of the pact - it is seen as a symbol of totalitarian evil.
Anti-Western tone
The BBC's Russian Service, in an online forum, asked its readers what they thought of the pact and its modern-day significance.
it has become very difficult to gain access to state archives containing material describing Nazi-Soviet co-operation
Stalin's bid for a new world order
Pact that set the scene for war
Very few of their comments support the Western interpretation of the pact. Indeed, some question whether the secret protocol even existed.
A number adhere to standard Soviet versions of history - the Soviet Union incorporated western Ukraine and western Belarus (parts of Poland in 1939) for "the protection of the local population".
In general, the tone is anti-Western, strongly rejecting moral comparisons of Nazi Germany and Stalin's USSR.
These comments come largely from young people living in large cities. Many of them are products of post-Soviet upbringing and education.
They are likely to have travelled abroad, and to have adopted western cultural and social mores.
'Harsh response'
In connection with its association with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, 23 August remains a highly emotive date.
In early July, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe passed a resolution basically equating Nazism with Stalinism.
Proposed by Lithuania and Slovenia, it suggested making 23 August a day of remembrance for the victims of the two totalitarian systems.
The date was deliberately chosen for its symbolism.
The Russian delegation stormed out, promising a "harsh response".
It remains unclear how nascent efforts to criminalise non-official interpretations of history in Russia will shape analysis of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
But already, both Russian and foreign historians are reporting that it has become very difficult to gain access to state archives containing material describing Nazi-Soviet co-operation.

African view: Devoured by greed?

In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, Sola Odunfa wonders what Nigeria's banking crisis says about the country's elite.
Once again Nigeria is in the throes of a bank crisis. Rumbles of a quake have been heard and the nation is girding its loins.
The more the individual banker amasses from the bribes, the greedier he becomes
Top Nigerians shamed as debtors
Shares suspended in Nigeria banks
Ten banks were audited by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Only half of them got the pass mark. The others were said to have fallen far short of the prudent and transparent management required by law and by public trust.
The remaining 14 banks in the country are now being audited. How many of these will scale through?
Should half of them also require government bailouts, the entire financial industry in Nigeria may crash, taking what is left of the economy with it.
Banking laws in Nigeria are tight enough to prevent the type of crisis creeping in.
By law, no loan can be given by any bank without physical collateral and every bank must disclose its non-performing loans to the Central Bank promptly.
Moreover, no bank may give out credit above a stated percentage of its assets.
But what are laws in an environment with pervasive corruption and uncontrollable greed?
Preserve of the rich
About 10 years ago 20 banks collapsed, taking with them the future and, in some cases, the lives of many depositors.

The plight of Nigerian depositors is often forgotten
I do not recollect that any serious punishment was meted to the bankers. The officials who caused the crisis smiled away with their loot.
There was also the earlier saga of scores of failed finance houses when several thousand Nigerians were impoverished.
Most of the proprietors initially fled the country only to return to enjoy their loot when they considered the coast clear.
Since then banking in Nigeria has become a glamour profession. Bank executives flaunt opulence and an air of arrogance.
Having caught the corruption bug ravaging the country, they too have become as corrupt as the most corrupt politician or businessman in the land.
Hardly any customer can obtain a loan without paying a bribe, which is calculated as a percentage of the loan sought.
As for the top executives, they are the glamour superstars
The more the individual banker amasses from the bribes, the greedier he becomes and the more he closes his eyes to regulations.
With time, access to bank credit has become the preserve of the very rich who see no reason to pay back, given the percentage they had paid officials.
In Nigeria young bank managers ride the most expensive cars, they belong in the most exclusive social clubs, they live in the choicest neighbourhoods and they enrol their children in the most expensive schools.
As for the top executives, they are the glamour superstars. They move around town with long convoys of so-called security cars.
They are by far the heaviest donors to Pentecostal Churches, with attendant privileges.
Pleading innocence
Many of them travel in their own private jets and they dip into their bank's resources as if these are their personal piggy-banks. Hollywood stars would envy their lifestyle.

Churches are often constructed from donations from the congregation
For a week now three bank chief executives have been reflecting on their lives in the cells of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
One other is said to be at large and yet another is taking refuge in the United Kingdom.
All of them plead innocence.
More will surely join them from the 14 other banks being audited.
They will all have their day in court, along with debtors who cannot pay up.
Even that may not tame the greed devouring the Nigerian elite.

Super tower

Arabic and friendship studies in Syria

The Syrian capital, Damascus, is becoming a popular destination for foreigners who want to learn Arabic. The BBC's Paul Moss, who spent time there earlier this year, was inspired to study hard by his encounters with the city's people.

The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters
Alex sent a text message to say he had been bitten by a snake. Perhaps I was unfair, but I reckoned he was making it up.
Among the great pantheon of excuses people have made for missing an exam, "attack by snake" must rate as one of the more implausible.
But Alex had sent the text message to several of my classmates, asking them to inform the authorities at Damascus University.
He would be absent, he said, from the final test for "Arabic level one" as he was still recovering from the venomous injury.
I doubt whether Alex's story will put many people off coming here.
Studying Arabic in Damascus is increasingly popular.
For anyone wanting to learn the language the city has become a Mecca, if you will pardon a somewhat inappropriate metaphor.
I had come because I often report from the Middle East for the BBC and thought it would be useful to be able to phone someone's office, for example, and ask for an interview.
Failing that, I hoped I might at least be able to stop at a cafe en route for the interview and use my linguistic skills to order a falafel.
Furrowed brows
The need to speak Arabic for work was what had driven several of the people on my course to come here.

The Koran has been translated into many languages
The class at Damascus University included two social workers, from Italy and Sweden, who both had responsibilities relating to Arab immigrants.
Then there was the teacher who had Arab children among her pupils back home.
But there were also devout Muslims, one from South Africa, and several from Yorkshire, England, all intent on being able to read the Koran in its original form.
As for Alex, I was never sure exactly why he was studying Arabic. But the intervention of the snake had, in any case, removed him from the equation.
Whatever their different motivations, the influx of all these would-be orientalists is changing the face of Damascus.
The city now teems with foreigners - mostly young, and living on a budget - yet shunning the laid-back idleness of your average backpacker.
This is a language where there is a grammatical rule to explain most things - unlike in English - but the rules are often desperately hard to grasp, let alone to memorise
There are no beaches for these diligent students, no yoga retreats, or opportunities to experiment with drugs.
Instead, they wander the streets of Damascus' Old City, their brows furrowed, as they mutter strange incantations under their breath.
In fact, this is the quiet chanting of irregular verbs or reciting of lists of nouns and their plurals.
The study is hard.
This is a language where there is a grammatical rule to explain most things - unlike in English - but the rules are often desperately hard to grasp.
Everyone goes through bad-tempered moments of wanting to give up altogether.
I myself had a particularly intense tantrum when confronted with the Arabic word for "there are", as applied to three or more non-human objects.
Reading from the original script, the word looked as though it was something like "Ha-aloo-ooh-ha-alloowi", though, as my textbook helpfully explained, the pronunciation is irregular.
Western hostility
But however modest our achievements, the presence of foreign students does seem to please the Damascenes.

"Tadrusus el lawra Arabiya - hunna?" they ask delightedly - "You're studying Arabic - here?"
There is a serious side to this incredulity. Syrians tend to feel that their country is the object of Western hostility.
And it is true that although Syria did not quite make it on to George Bush's "axis of evil", it is usually seen as a close runner-up.
So the fact that Westerners choose to come here, and to study their language, is frequently a source of surprise and delight.
"You know Paul," my local barman assured me, "we don't hate American people, only the American government."
I was in the vanguard of a new cross-cultural movement, one that would transcend old enmities
I reminded him I was not actually American, but this minor detail was not sufficient to stem his flow.
"You Americans, you learn some Arabic, we learn a little English. We can all be friends."
It had been a particularly tough day, the verbs and the vocabulary taking their toll.
But somehow this image spurred me on.
No longer was I merely studying a language. I was in the vanguard of a new cross-cultural movement, that would transcend old enmities.
I returned to my rented room that night with renewed enthusiasm, and I studied hard.
In fact my whole class studied hard, and in the end, we all passed our beginner's Arabic exam.
Except Alex of course. It turned out the snake-bite story was true. He had the wound and the hospital stay to prove it.
But the experience had not been all that bad, he said. The hygiene on the ward was first-class and the nurses, he thought, were rather cute.
He had missed the exam. But last thing I heard, Alex had signed up with a private tutor, determined to nail that grammar once and for all.

New high-speed rail plan unveiled

Network Rail has proposed a new £34bn ($55bn) high-speed railway line linking Scotland and London by 2030.
The line would serve Birmingham and Manchester, getting passengers from Glasgow to London in just two hours and 16 minutes, the rail firm said.
It rejected several alternative routes, including the east of England.
The government said assessments of the costs and environmental issues involved needed to be carried out before it could approve any plans.
It is currently conducting its own rail network review and said it hoped to be in a position to make a decision next year.
If given the go-ahead, Network Rail said it would take up to five years to decide on the exact route and complete the planning stages.
It wants the first section of the line between London and Birmingham to be completed by 2020.
The line would become the country's second high-speed rail link after the line that runs from London St Pancras to the Channel Tunnel, run by the Eurostar service and connecting to high-speed lines in continental Europe.
New line
Network Rail's proposed new line linking Glasgow and Edinburgh with London, on which trains could travel as fast as 200mph, would also serve Manchester, Liverpool, Preston and Birmingham.
A spokesman for one of Manchester's biggest employers, Kellog's cereals, said: "This is great news for business in Manchester, just as London is going to be more accessible for us, Manchester will be for those in the South East."
Network Rail boss: 'We need to provide a bigger and better railway
The new line would cut the journey between London and Birmingham to 45 minutes, from a best time of one hour and 22 minutes currently.
Rail passengers would also be able to get to Liverpool in one hour and 23 minutes, from two hours and eight minutes now.
Network Rail, the company that runs Britain's rail infrastructure, said the new line would require more than 1,500 miles of rail, sleepers and ballast, as well as 138 bridges over roads and current railway lines.
Network Rail says the new line is required to ease the pressure on Britain's railways. It says passenger numbers have rocketed by 40% over the past decade, and that by 2024, many existing lines will be at full capacity.
Transport Secretary Lord Adonis told the BBC that high-speed links were vital for the future.
"This report makes a powerful case for high-speed rail in Britain," he said.
Lord Adonis said the company set up by the government to prepare a high-speed rail plan would take "full account" of the proposals and deliver a report by the end of the year, with a decision by next year.
Currently, the route proposal will be between London and the West Midlands, with options to extend the line to Scotland and the north of England.
Alternative options
ANALYSIS

Lorna Gordon, Scotland correspondent, Glasgow
There has been a universal welcome for these proposals here.
But there are still many questions about this project, not least the cost -£34bn.
Only the government has the capability of funding such a large infrastructure project and as we know, government money is very tight at the moment.
And there is the cost to passengers. If you look to Europe there is a premium on routes such as this, where ticket prices are typically 30% higher for travelling on high-speed services.
The Conservatives' shadow transport secretary, Theresa Villiers, told the BBC she welcomed the announcement.
"We're committed to taking high-speed rail to the north of England, and we think Labour should match that," she said.
The Conservatives currently propose to build a rail link between Leeds and London.
Network Rail said it had rejected routes that would have taken the new line via Leeds and Newcastle upon Tyne, as well as a route that included Leicester and Sheffield and another option through Bristol and Cardiff.
But Greg Mulholland, MP for Leeds North West, said: "Once again this government has neglected the people of Yorkshire when it comes to investment in transport."
Meanwhile, the Freight Transport Association said that the announcement offered a chance to look at wider rail issues beyond passenger transport.
"While it is good news that Network Rail has set out its agenda for High Speed 2, far reaching and meaningful improvements to rail freight could be made for just a fraction of the £30bn estimated [cost]," said the organisation's Christopher Snelling.
'Plan quickly'
Network Rail based its decision on a 12-month study involving 20,000 hours of work and more than 1,500 pages of analysis.
The firm said that the line would account for 43.7 million journeys per year by 2030, which would result in 3.8 million fewer vehicle journeys and fewer carbon dioxide emissions.
"If, as research suggests, up to three times as many passengers will be travelling on our railways by 2020, then it is important that we move quickly in planning today for the rail network of tomorrow," said Scotland's Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson.

Great Surpise

Ankara's Ramadan festival to display Iranian art

Iranian artists are planning to introduce the country's traditional art forms during the Ramadan art festival in the Turkish city of Ankara. Persian art lovers will be able to see calligraphy and illumination works at Tehran art alley, which will be part of the Turkish festival running from August 26 to 31, 2009. Visitors will have the chance to attend traditional Persian story telling (Naqqali) sessions, become more familiar with Iran's tourist attractions, and visit photograph and poster exhibitions. According to Mehr News Agency, the event will also screen Iran's Ramadan TV series and hold a photograph exhibition on the subject of children and spirituality.

Kurdish question has political costs

ANKARA, Turkey, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- The push in Ankara to find a political solution to the so-called Kurdish question has brought new challenges to the ruling Justice and Development Party.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has secured the backing of political, labor and military leaders for a government initiative meant to resolve lingering issues over the ambitions of the Kurdish minority and conflicts with Kurdish separatists.
National security officials called in interior ministers to move forward with plans that provide economic assistance, cultural recognition and other concessions to ethnic Kurds. Meanwhile, a general amnesty offer is on the table for some rebels with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
But members of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, said political solutions amount to nothing short of sedition, reports The National, a newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates.
"It is clear as daylight that the prime minister's project, which he wants society to adopt, is aimed at fulfilling, step by step, the demands of ethnic separatists," said MHP leader Devlet Bahceli.
Pressure is mounting, however, as 25 years of conflict have taken their toll on the Turkish military and security officials come to realize finding a military solution has so far failed.

Russian-Turkish message to EU

Some think that separating between economic cooperation and political tension is possible and they give the Russian-Turkish cooperation in the 1960s an example when Russia helped Turkey to establish big metallurgic industry that was a base for the Turkish steel industry and the heavy industry in general. Others think that when countries find that the political and military tension harm their long term interests they seek to establish short and medium term interests to serve as a ceiling for friction between these countries. They give the same example as a proof for their view. Geopolitically both Russia and Turkey have the same vital space in the Middle East, East Europe and Central Asia. Historically, both empires fought each other and the conclusion was that both were reduced to their homeland. Wars between them started as early as 1711. The Russian role to end the influence of the Ottoman Empire in East Europe was accompanied by wars against Turkey and Iran to spread influence in Balkan. Russia took Georgia in 1804 and Armenia in 1827 from the Persian Empire. The Russian, Turkish and Persian empires never formed alliances in a formula of two against one but the three were always at odds. The three empires sought alliances with the European forces against each other. The European forces played the game to serve their interests by shifting alliances between the three empires to put upper limits for their regional and international influence. The British and French navies helped the Russian navy against the Egyptian-Turkish navies in Navarino battle in 1827. After Greece became independent it was clear that revival of the empire was the only strategy that might save it. Napoleon principal stated a separation between Turkey and Egypt was a must to end the Eastern Empire. He was the first who suggested transfer of Jews from Europe to Palestine to serve this target. This Western strategic principal made the European forces abort trials of Mohamed Ali to revive the empire in London Treaty. They also gave the Russian Emperor Nicola the 1st a green card to force Turkish out of their Danube governorates in East Europe in 1854. However to put a limit for Russian aspirations they let the Egyptian army save the Turkish homeland 1854 -1856. Paris Treaty, 1856 was signed to safeguard the land of the Ottoman Empire. Another shift of alliance happened when they helped Russians again and the result was San Stefano Treaty 1878 between Russia and the Ottoman Empire that virtually ended the Turkish influence in Europe by giving independence to Romania, Serbia and Monte Negro. The Tripartite alliance between Britain, France and Russia, 1907, forced Turkey to have an alliance with the Germans and to side with them in WWI. Belford promise, 1917 founded a strategy based on Napoleon principle that served interests of western powers and Russia to put an end for any trial to revive any eastern empire on the Southern Russian borders. After WWII, the Soviet Union that was another Russian Empire was founded between the Russian homeland and satellite countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In fact most of these satellite countries were part of the Ottoman Empire. Therefore the fall of the Soviet Union revived Turkish dreams of having influence in Central Asia to East Turkistan that was occupied by China in 1920s.
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Both Russia and Turkey have problems with the EU. Russia wants to stop the spread of NATO, to abort the anti-missile shield and to regain its influence in Eastern Europe. Within this context Russia was forced to use its ground force in a war against Georgia. It threatened to withdraw from the Traditional Weapons Limitation Treaty and to upgrade its nuclear arms. Russia used oil and gas supplies to Europe as a weapon. The European responded by Nabco pipeline project that transport oil and gas from Central Asia bypassing the Russian land.The German and French veto for Turkish membership in the EU angers Turkey that still sees itself a European country and one of the most important countries in NATO. Turkey imports 30% of its oil and 70% of its gas from Russia. The agreement between Russia and Turkey about the Southern Stream pipeline balances the effect of the European Nabucco line. In fact the agreement makes both Russia and Turkey control the energy supply through pipelines to Europe if they cooperate. There are high chances that Russia would build the Turkish nuclear reactors. Both Russia and Turkey have common security interests now. Both do not like extremism to have a safe haven in Central Asia. Both refuse a Kurdish state anywhere. Both have cultural interests in central Asia. Despite being a member in NATO, Turkey is moderate about extension of the alliance to east and finds that the anti-missile shield is not so important for global defense. Russia could help Turkey to reconcile with Armenia, a prerequisite for EU membership. The message that both want to send to the Europe is that they read history. They establish bases for their cooperation that may solve political contradicting views that are still present. For the first time in recent history Europe finds Turkey and Russia on the same line. Both Turkey and Russia are important countries to the Arabs. When one sees Israel shares in military maneuvers with Turkey and the US and at the same time it sells unmanned warplanes to Russia that gave a promise to the Hebrew state that it would not take steps to change military balance, one should ask a simple question. Why do not Arabs move faster? Turkey is an ally to the US but this did not prevent it form protecting its interests and playing with the suitable cards to dissolve refusal for EU membership. Israel is an ally to the US but it does what its interests dictate to keep Russia from playing active role in balancing military powers in the region. Arabs are allies to the US but they ask it to consider their interests. They should play the cards they have and they have many cards. If they played it right the US would consider their rights not only in Palestine but also in the Gulf and Africa.

Kurdish policy: Massacre highlights difficulties in closing damaging rift

By Pelin Turgut
Published: June 8 2009 17:03 Last updated: June 8 2009 17:03
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On a Sunday evening in early May, as a sandstorm whirled over the village of Bilge in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish south-east, a lively engagement party wound to a close. After a feast of steaming meat and rice, trays of sugary baklava and Turkish coffee, the several dozen guests retired to two rooms, men and women, to say a final prayer.
That was when five men, armed with machine guns and hand grenades, stormed the house and opened fire, killing 47 people, including six children as well as the bride and groom.
It was the worst civilian attack republican Turkey has ever seen and prompted national soul-searching. Details of the massacre paint a picture of a region where 25 years of fighting between Turkish troops and Kurdish separatists have left a bitter and complicated legacy; one the government hints it may finally be ready to tackle.
Initial reports suggested an “honour killing” – the bride was promised to another man – or a blood feud between two families, but neither explain the scale or style of the attack.
“There has never been anything like this before,” says Mazhar Bagli, a sociologist at Dicle University in the south-east. “To be sure this is a traditional region where relationships are governed by traditional rules, but to kill a group of women and children indiscriminately, while praying – that’s unheard of.”
It subsequently emerged that the men detained for the attack were “village guards”, local Kurds armed by the government to help in the fight against the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and their weapons were official issue.
“The reason for the massacre wasn’t a blood feud, honour, ignorance or a land dispute,” the Human Rights Association says in a report. “The only reason was the village guards, armed and paid for by the state, and the system that this has created.”
That system dates back to 1985 – a time when Turkey denied that Kurds existed. As the PKK grew from a ragtag bunch of insurgents into an armed movement, attracting recruits by the thousands, Turkey’s military introduced village guards as a counter-insurgency method. They helped troops navigate local terrain, were often used on the operational front line, kept tabs on possible rebels and frequently took over land abandoned by people who were deemed PKK sympathisers and forced to flee.
In time, they became local overlords and now number around 60,000. “When you arm a group of people in an environment where the rule of law isn’t very well applied to begin with, you destroy any natural balance,” says Mr Bagli.
Human rights groups have long accused the guards of using their power to settle scores and engage in smuggling. “The failure of successive Turkish governments to hold accountable members of the security forces and village guard for abuses has created a climate of impunity,” US-based Human Rights Watch has said.
The debate over the guard system comes at a time when a solution to the larger Kurdish conflict could finally be in sight. Both politicians and the PKK have recently made peace overtures. President Abdullah Gul said that this year offered a “historic opportunity” for resolution, while the normally hawkish opposition leader Deniz Baykal suggested an amnesty for PKK fighters who surrendered their weapons. For its part, the PKK has extended a unilateral ceasefire until July 15 and dropped demands for independence in favour of greater autonomy and cultural rights.
In Ankara, extending Kurdish cultural rights is on the cards. Since January a state-run Kurdish language TV station has been on air, and ministers are debating reinstating Kurdish place names and recruiting Kurdish-speaking health care workers to posts in the region.
The US is also pushing for change. President Barack Obama is keen to smooth Turkey’s relations with the Kurdish regional government in Iraq – which Ankara accuses of supporting the PKK – before hoped-for troop withdrawals by 2010.
The peace process could, however, easily be derailed and its opposers are many – Turkish ultra-nationalism has grown stronger in recent years, the powerful military has thus far ignored PKK ceasefires and courts are pursuing the handful of Kurdish MPs in parliament for alleged separatism.
“It’s a negotiation period,” says commentator Mehmet Ali Birand. “Both sides are trying to calculate how far they can retreat.” Turkey has said it will not negotiate with terrorists.
Even if the conflict ends, the Bilge massacre indicates how complicated building peace will be. Tens of thousands of village guards, for instance, would need to be decommissioned, rehabilitated and alternatively employed in a region that is already desperately poor. They will also have to be protected from retaliatory attacks.
“It’s going to be a tough process, and very fragile,” says Mr Bagli, who suggests the guards could be retained on the state payroll but used in agriculture instead. “It’s not impossible. I’m more hopeful about a solution than I’ve ever been.”

Turkish military backs Kurd move

By Delphine Strauss in Ankara
Published: August 25 2009 23:54 Last updated: August 25 2009 23:54
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Turkey’s powerful military intervened on Tuesday in a heated political row over government efforts to extend the rights of Kurdish citizens, supporting the initiative but opposing any contacts with militants.
The ruling Justice & Development party faces a growing backlash to plans to broaden language and cultural rights for an estimated 12 million Kurds, as opposition politicians whip up widely held fears that the opening could endanger national unity or amount to bargaining with terrorists.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Turkish trial exposes culture of conspiracy - Jul-19
Turkey to raise fuel taxes - Jul-16
Xinjiang riots damage Sino-Turkish ties - Jul-14
Turkish army on defensive over alleged plot - Jun-19
Turkish assets rally after talks with IMF - Jun-20
Alleged plot raises tensions in Turkey - Jun-15
The reforms, though presented as part of a broader move to improve minority rights in line with European standards, will be vital to ending a 25-year conflict with separatist Kurdistan Workers Party rebels that has claimed more than 40,000 lives.
The military, which views itself as a guardian of Turkey’s values as well as its borders, has thrown its weight behind the initiative. In Tuesday’s statement Ilker Basbug, chief of general staff, said the army’s fight against the PKK should be accompanied by the state taking “the necessary measures in the economic, socio-cultural and international fields”.
He also said freedom of discussion should not be abused by statements that could “endanger the existence of the state or polarise the country” – a warning not to fuel tensions that may be aimed at both nationalists and hard-line Kurdish politicians.
The intervention drew angry responses from both ends of the political spectrum. Devlet Bahceli, leader of the right-wing National Action Party, issued a long statement recalling the 1920s war of independence, claiming the nation’s existence was again under threat and calling on patriots to “rally under the Turkish flag”.
The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, which wants not just greater cultural rights but also some regional autonomy and an amnesty for PKK militants, said it was worried by the AKP’s support for Gen Basbug’s statement.
The government has been consulting all summer to determine the content of a “Kurdish opening” that might begin with relatively straightforward steps, such as restoring the old Kurdish names of villages or allowing greater freedom for Kurdish language broadcasters.
But it is unlikely to be able to broach the most controversial issues, such as Kurdish language education or constitutional change, without opposition support. Deputies involved in the initiative are worried that it risks foundering amid factional politics.
Gen Basbug said there could be no question of changing a constitutional article that mandates Turkish as the official language. The military would also oppose any change in the state’s unitary structure, any attempt to conduct politics based on ethnic differences and any contacts with the PKK or its supporters, he said.
The military had faced rare criticism from opposition parties after the National Security Council, whose membership includes senior commanders, last week publicly endorsed the initiative to address long-standing Kurdish grievances.

Dividing India To Save It

This is an article from an Indian Muslim writer in response to Jaswant Singh’s book on Jinnah which poses some very interesting questions regarding partition and the role of Nehru and Patel in it. Should make for interesting debate for scholars of partition on PakTeaHouse-YLH
By M J Akbar
Jaswant Singh’s Jinnah has certainly provoked much ado about something, but what is that something? Would this biography have made news if the author had not been a senior leader of the BJP?
The world of books requires some chintan, but fortunately no chintan baithak. Who or what, then, is the story: Jinnah or the BJP? The two are not entirely unrelated, for the BJP was formed as a direct consequence of the creation of Pakistan. The umbilical cord still sends spasms up its central nerve.
Two questions frame the Jaswant-Jinnah controversy. Was Jinnah secular? Do Nehru and Patel share the “guilt” for Partition?
Neither question is new, but both have an amazing capacity for reinvention. Jawaharlal’s great socialist contemporary, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, fired the first broadside in “The Guilty Men of Partition”: the title implied that responsibility extended beyond Jinnah. But since his purpose was polemical, the frisson was lost in forgotten corners of libraries. Jaswant Singh had little to gain from searching for some good interred with Jinnah’s bones, and a bit to lose.
For most of his life, Jinnah was the epitome of European secularism, in contrast to Gandhi’s Indian secularism. Jinnah admired Kemal Ataturk, who separated religion from state. Gandhi believed that politics without religion was immoral; advocated equality of all religions, and even pandered to the Indian’s need for a religious identity. He never publicly disavowed the ‘Mahatma’ attached to his name, even when privately critical, and understood the importance of ‘Pandit’ before Nehru, although Jawaharlal was not particularly religious. Azad had a legitimate right to call himself a Maulana, for he was a scholar of the Holy Book.
Jinnah was not an agnostic. He was born an Ismaili Khoja, and consciously decided to shift, under the influence of an early mentor, Badruddin Tyabji, from the “Sevener” sect, which required obedience to the Aga Khan, to the Twelvers, who recognized no leader. But his faith did not include ritual. He might have posed in a sherwani to demand Pakistan, but he would have considered ‘Maulana Jinnah’ an absurdity. In the end, Jinnah and Gandhi were not as far apart as the record might suggest. Jinnah wanted a secular nation with a Muslim majority; Gandhi desired a secular nation with a Hindu majority. The difference was the geographical arc. Gandhi had an inclusive dream, Jinnah an exclusive one.
The Indian elite tends to measure secularism in pegs: Hindus who do not drink are abstemious, and Muslims who do not are puritan. Jinnah was content with a British lifestyle. He anglicized his name from Jinnahbhai to Jinnah, and dropped an extra ‘l’ from Alli. His monocle was styled on Joseph Chamberlain’s, and he even had a PG Wodehouse moment during a visit to Oxford, when he was arrested for frolics on boat race day (he was let off with a caution; he would never spend a day in jail). His secret student dream was to play Romeo at Old Vic, and only an anguished letter from his father (“Do not be a traitor to your family”) stopped him from becoming a professional actor. He relaxed after a tiring day by reading Shakespeare in a loud resonant voice.
His politics was nationalist and liberal. His early heroes were Phirozeshah Mehta and Dadabhai Naoroji (known as “Mr Narrow-Majority” because he was elected to the House of Commons in 1892 by only three votes). After he met Gopal Krishna Gokhale at his first Congress session in 1904, his “fond ambition”, in Sarojini Naidu’s words, was to become “the Muslim Gokhale”. No one could have hoped for higher praise than what Jinnah received from Ms Naidu: “…the obvious sanity and serenity of his worldly wisdom effectually disguise a shy and splendid idealism which is of the very essence of the man”. Jinnah was only 28.
He scoffed at Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s two-nation theory, and wrote an angry letter to The Times of India challenging the legitimacy of the famous Muslim delegation to Lord Minto on October 1, 1906, which built the separatist Muslim platform. (The Times did not print it.) He ignored the convention in Dhaka on December 30, 1906 where the Muslim League was born. Perhaps the best glimpse of Jinnah’s idealism, in my view, is from the memoirs of his friends. The cool Jinnah broke down and cried thrice in public: after sitting, frozen, for five hours at the Khoja cemetery on the day his young wife, Ruttie, was buried; when he was taking the train back from Calcutta in 1928 after the failure of the talks on the (Motilal) Nehru Report; and when he visited a Hindu refugee camp in Karachi in January 1948.
n 1928, he thought he had lost the last chance for Hindu-Muslim unity; and as he watched the stricken Hindus twenty years later, he whispered,

“They used to call me Quaid-e-Azam; now they call me Qatil-e-Azam.”
Since Jaswant Singh has written a thematic biography, rather than a comprehensive one, the book skims over personality and addresses the politics of partition. Jinnah’s life is a window through which the author sees the larger landscape of Pakistan, and the heavily mined road towards this green horizon. One of the best sections of the book is the detailed examination of the great debates of1927 and 1928, although it does underplay the influence of the Hindu Mahasabha on the Congress at the time. What is evident is that Jinnah walked away from 1928 with a deep sense of grievance, and when he returned to politics in 1934, it was with a firm sense of entitlement. From this, emerged, propelled by steely commitment and brilliant leadership, Pakistan in 1947.
The alleged “guilt” of Nehru and Patel is the story of 1946 and 1947, since there were no disputes in the Congress on the unity of India before that. A point needs to be stressed for those who find Nehru-baiting irresistible. Nehru was not the predominant power in the Congress at that time. Not only was Gandhi alive, and deeply involved, but Patel was an equal. He could not impose his personal views upon the Congress, without support, and decisions were made through long and even tortured discussions. The Congress was democratic in spirit and practice. Even after Gandhi’s assassination Nehru faced a strong challenge to his leadership, from Purushottam Das Tandon.
The “guilt” centres around Nehru’s response to the Cabinet Mission Plan in 1946 and the Congress Working Committee resolution on March 8, 1947 accepting “a division of the Punjab into two provinces, so that the predominantly Muslim part may be separated from the predominantly non-Muslim part”. (Nehru had earlier voiced the idea of a trifurcation of Punjab; eventually, that is what happened.)
The Cabinet Mission Plan is now of academic interest since it was overtaken by Partition, but it is true that on June 25, 1946 Congress accepted it in the hope of establishing a “united democratic Indian Federation with a Central authority, which would command respect from the nations of the world, maximum provincial autonomy and equal rights for all men and women in the country”. And on July 10, Nehru, newly elected Congress President, rejected “Grouping”, one of the key (if still opaque) aspects of the Plan. Azad described this, politely, as one of those “unfortunate events which changed the course of history”.
But Nehru was not the dictator of the Congress. Gandhi could have intervened and declared him out of order. The working committee could have convened and reaffirmed its resolution to satisfy Muslim League doubts. The fact that the rest of the Congress was largely (but not completely) silent indicates rethinking. The provisions of the Plan could have left the political map of India an utter horror story, enmeshed by potentially rebellious Princely States, and “Groupings” with their own executives and Constituent Assemblies, buttressed by the right to secede in 10 years. Jinnah might have been content with a “moth-eaten” Pakistan. Nehru would not accept a “moth-eaten” India.
The Punjab resolution of March 1947 was passed in the absence of Gandhi and Azad. Patel and Nehru were its stewards. When Gandhi asked for an explanation, he got an excuse. Patel was disingenuous: “That you had expressed your views against it, we learnt only from the papers. But you are of course entitled to say what you feel right.” Nehru was even more evasive: “About our proposal to divide Punjab, this flows naturally from our previous discussions.” Gandhi and Azad were still adamant that they would not accept Partition: had Nehru and Patel surrendered behind the back of the man who led the independence movement?
The Punjab resolution was prefaced by a conditional phrase: “faced with the killing and brutality that are going on”. By March 1947, Nehru and Patel were more concerned about saving India from the consequences of Pakistan-inspired violence. The experiment in joint Congress-League had begun against the backdrop of the great Calcutta killings, which began with Direct Action Day on August 16, 1946 and never stopped for a year, when Gandhi went on his heroic fast for peace in Calcutta: Gandhi’s supreme courage and conviction have few parallels. This was followed by the gruesome Bihar riots. There was administrative gridlock in Delhi and a drift towards anarchy across the breadth of India. Gandhi did not intervene to revise this CWC resolution either, despite his public reservations. Elsewhere, Azad and Rajendra Prasad have explained what happened. Patel persuaded the Mahatma that the option was either Partition or open war with the Muslim League, which meant a nation-wide civil war. Perhaps only Gandhi believed that Indian unity could have survived the Calcutta riots, and he too wavered.
On April 21, 1947 Nehru said openly that those “who demanded Pakistan could have it”. He entered a caveat: provided they did not coerce others to join such a Pakistan, or indeed to set up separate Stans. Jinnah did his best to partition India further. Nehru and Patel saved India from anarchy by isolating a wound that would have infected the whole of India if it had not been cauterized and sutured. For this they deserve our deepest gratitude. By early May, Nehru was able, in private conversations with Mountbatten in Shimla, to defuse what he saw as nothing short of Balkanization of the subcontinent, the details of which are in my biography of Nehru.
The anarchy that is Pakistan today would have visited India six decades ago. What ironic stupidity that a self-styled admirer of Patel should ban a book that describes how Patel and Nehru overcame, groping through complex imponderables and unimaginable horror, the greatest challenge in modern Indian history.
Times of India

Israeli Intelligence Chief Dan Meridor

In an interview with SPIEGEL, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor, 62, speaks about Prime Minister Netanyahu's upcoming visit to Berlin, the chances for a new peace process in the Middle East and why the world can't let Iran get its hands on nuclear weapons.
SPIEGEL: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting George Mitchell, the United States' special envoy to the Middle East, this Monday in London before coming to Berlin on Wednesday. Will we see a very confident and relaxed Benjamin Netanyahu or a politician whose hardline policies have put him under a lot of pressure?
Dan Meridor: I don't think we are hardline. But if you'd like to characterize our government in this way, you are entitled to do so. But please take into account the fact that the position of Israeli's prime minister is unique. The Israeli prime minister is confronted with problems you don't see as head of the government in Switzerland, Norway or even Germany. These are questions of a different scale and magnitude: a dramatically changing society, the absorption of immigrants and borders that are not yet defined and are challenged all the time. These are questions of the legitimacy of the state -- and its very survival.
SPIEGEL: And because of that ...
Meridor: ... you need to be relaxed and very stable as an Israeli politician. You can't try to meet all the expectations of the Israeli opposition, foreign powers or journalists. If I may say so, the issues are too serious to be taken at the press level.
SPIEGEL: What does this mean for the peace process and your government's decisions?
Meridor: We face many challenges that we did not create. Our government came in after a very serious attempt by (former Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert to reach an agreement with the Palestinians that offered more than anybody in Israel had ever done. He did not get a positive response. Perhaps Abu Mazen (ed's note: Abu Mazen is the name most commonly used in the Palestinian Authority for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) reacted the way he did because he doesn't control Gaza, where 40 percent of the territories' population lives and into which he cannot even travel. Perhaps Abu Mazen wants even more than just the Palestinian state; but there is nothing more to give. It was Olmert's -- and not our government's -- offer. Surely, nobody expects Netanyahu to offer more than what Olmert offered.
SPIEGEL: Are you not happy with the Palestinian leadership?
Meridor: I don't know. The question is whether Abu Mazen can deliver. Is there a real leadership in the Palestinian camp now? Do we have a partner for a peace process?
SPIEGEL: You blame Palestinian intransigence. Western leaders are, of course, demanding that the Arab side compromise on some issues. But they are also putting pressure on Israel to make concessions, as well, especially when it comes to its aggressive settlement policy in the West Bank.
Meridor: There is no such policy.
SPIEGEL: You don't regard new settlements in the occupied territories as being a major stumbling block in the peace process?
Meridor: That's exactly why we aren't building new settlements. We haven't approved any.
SPIEGEL: You are sidestepping the issue. US President Barack Obama wouldn't urge Israel to stop its settlement policies if he didn't have a reason to do so. He has demanded an immediate freeze to any expansion, but your government has chosen not to comply. Some of your colleagues in Israel's cabinet are even encouraging the most radical settlers to build new, completely illegal outposts. Just recently, several ministers visited these places and delivered provocative speeches.
Meridor: Ours is a big coalition government with diverging views. What you describe is neither the official policy of Prime Minister Netanyahu nor the official policy of the government.
SPIEGEL: But there is no question that your government is providing financial assistance to the ongoing, provocative expansion of existing settlements. This makes it impossible for the Palestinian leadership to negotiate with you.
Meridor: That's one of your misperceptions. Olmert made an agreement with the administration of former President George W. Bush according to which the Americans accepted that there would be construction within existing settlements. This has been admitted by the deputy national security adviser of the US, and it was recently published in the Wall Street Journal. That did not stop the Palestinians from negotiating with us over three years.
SPIEGEL: Well, the fact is that there is now a new American president who is urging Israel to make this concession. Why is it so difficult for your government to show some restraint and agree to the building freeze, when this is something that the US, the European Union and the United Nations are demanding?
Meridor: We don't feel pressured by Obama. We haven't built any new settlements, so we are fulfilling the understanding. Now there are some ongoing discussions about a compromise.
SPIEGEL: A freeze for the next 12 months?
Meridor: I can't comment on details at the moment because I'm very involved in these things. But, concerning the Palestinians, we are ready to negotiate. We don't want to wait. We said that from day one of our government. But the problem with the Palestinians is a serious one. You can't resolve it unless there is a readiness on their side to accept that, along with a Palestinian state, there is a Jewish state, too.
SPIEGEL: Fatah and its leadership have done it.
Meridor: No, they haven't -- at least not yet. I hope they will. They will only deserve their own state -- something which has never been offered to them in history -- if they do it.
SPIEGEL: What are you willing to negotiate on? Prime Minister Netanyahu needed months before he grudgingly accepted the two-state solution at all. And he didn't use the expression "Palestinian state" until June 14. And then there's the fact that he has announced a number of preconditions, such as that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of Israel.
Meridor: Again, not true. Netanyahu never set these positions as pre-conditions, although these are our strong positions in the negotiations process. Should we not have a position on Jerusalem?
SPIEGEL: Of course you can have a position. But you can't make this position a precondition. In a number of international accords, Israel agreed that the final status of Jerusalem would be part of the negotiations.
Meridor: Again, not accurate. These are not preconditions. The Old City with the Jewish Quarter and the Wailing Wall will never be part of an Arab state; all the major Israeli parties share this conviction. There could be a compromise on land in Judea and Samaria (ed's note: these areas are the biblical names for what is now referred to outside of Israel as the West Bank). But all Israeli governments have agreed on having a united Jerusalem. This is our clear position, but we can negotiate about Jerusalem. There are no preconditions, as you claim.

SPIEGEL: How much of the occupied land would you be willing to give back? By allowing the settlements to grow, aren't you more or less making a viable Palestinian state impossible?
Meridor: The final borders are open for discussion. But we will not return to the line of 1967 -- that's for sure. It was agreed in both President Bush's letter to Olmert and in the Geneva understandings that the settlement blocks would be part of the State of Israel in the final agreement.
SPIEGEL: Put yourself in the shoes of a Palestinian leader: Would you be satisfied with the fractured state that Netanyahu is offering -- which doesn't include an army, control of your air space and East Jerusalem as your capital?
Meridor: I'd accept it. You know, I would like the whole land to be my land -- because I think it's mine and they think it should all be theirs. But I changed my mind over 15 years ago: We need to divide it, and both sides have to accept this. For a long time already, we had a difficult, but very positive process.
SPIEGEL: Are you saying that there is no longer any peace process?
Meridor: We hope it will resume, and we have some hopeful signs. But, all in all, it has become more difficult over the years because of the introduction of religion into this conflict. Arab rulers hated us in the past, but they did it because of nationalistic ideas. Since the (1979) revolution in Teheran, we hear a different tune: The Iranians, Hezbollah and Hamas fight us in the name of religion. This is very bad because people can compromise, but gods never compromise.
SPIEGEL: Are you sure that the Iranians introduced religion into the conflict? Isn't Jerusalem about religion, too? Aren't the ultraorthodox settlers claiming the Holy Land for themselves because of their God-given rights?
Meridor: You can't compare these things. The previous pope (John Paul II) said that Jerusalem is sacred to all religions but was promised to one people. We have no religious claim on Jerusalem; we have a national one. Jerusalem is our capital. We shouldn't talk about the settlements 90 percent of the time and neglect the most important problems ...
SPIEGEL: ... like Iran and nuclear weapons.
Meridor: This is certainly a cause of serious concern.
SPIEGEL: John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the UN, recently claimed that Israel will attack Iran's nuclear sites by the end of the year. Although the well-informed Israeli newspaper Haaretz did not give an exact timetable for such an attack, it did report that Netanyahu has made the decision to bomb Iran. Is this true?
Meridor: I don't think the prime minister has made up his mind in the way it has been described. But I don't want to get into details ...
SPIEGEL: ...which is a pity. And that's because you -- as the minister of intelligence and atomic energy and a member of Netanyahu's inner circle -- should know.
Meridor: Let me say this much: I think Iran shouldn't be allowed to become a nuclear power. This is not only an issue for Israel but for the whole world. It would be a victory for the extremists over the moderates in the Arab world. This worries the moderate Arab countries more than anything else. It would change the equilibrium in the Middle East; it would mean the end of the (Nuclear) Non-Proliferation Treaty; it would be a serious threat for us. One shouldn't forget that Iranian President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad has repeatedly spoken about the illegitimacy of Israel and its destruction. But we should concentrate now on harsher sanctions against Teheran, with America leading the way. And we are counting on the Europeans to follow with serious actions. This includes Germany, which is one of Iran's very important trading partners.
SPIEGEL: But what if the sanctions fail to divert Iran from its present course? Will Israel attack alone? Or only with the consent of the US?
Meridor: I don't want to go into this. But we all see the clock ticking -- and Netanyahu knows what he's doing.
SPIEGEL: At the moment, he is much more popular in Israel than he is abroad. Are you worried that Netanyahu might get a somewhat cool reception in Berlin?
Meridor: No. Germany is one of Israel's best friends. And, all in all, I am quite optimistic that things in the Middle East will develop in a positive way. There's something in the air.
SPIEGEL: Really? Could Marwan Barghouti, the intifada leader who is currently serving five life sentences for murder in an Israeli jail, be released and become a respected Palestinian leader and partner for peace? Many think that he has become a moderate, and the Fatah Party's congress held in early August voted him into its Central Committee with the third-best results of any candidate.
Meridor: I've heard similar ideas.
SPIEGEL: Many people think that both the Palestinians and the Israelis have made peace with the status quo and are not prepared for any more painful compromises. Are they right?
Meridor: For us, the status quo is a bad option. We need to change it -- and take risks. But we must take into account the lessons we've learned from the past.
Interview conducted by Erich Follath.