From: nahabed@ntmtv.UUCP (Roupen Nahabedian)
Subject: Re: TRH News--Part 3
Reply-To: nahabed@ntmtv.UUCP (Roupen Nahabedian)
Organization: Northern Telecom Inc.
Distribution: talk.politics.mideast, talk.politics.soviet, soc.culture.jewish
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 01:12:51 GMT

In article <9210030941.AA24588@deepthought.cs.utexas.edu> Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU> writes:
>TRH News--Part 3
>

	[ deleted ]

	...OK, couldn't let this one slip by... 

	This piece of "news" is not only unsubstantiated, but I question
	the REAL motive behind this story. I see no other purpose than to
	provoke anti-Semetic and anti-Armeian sentiment between the two
	groups... 

	Assuming that Israel has an out-of-this-world reason to side  
	OPPENLY with Azerbaijan, let alone get invovled in the conflict
        to begin with, an operation like this would be kept COVERT at 
	best: COMMONSENSE 101!

	Perhaps those receiving and propegating this "news" on the Turkish
	channel (soc.culture.turkish/TRH) can advise these "sources" in
	Baku to mix-in a bit more "common sense" in their propaganda soup
	before they expect anoyone to swallow it! 
	
	Roupen N.

	PS: Mutlu/Argic (whoever you are) do not bother to respond. You
            have long been buried deep in the bowels of my KILL file...


>    ISRAEL BEGINS ARMING AZERI FORCES
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>    BAKU (OCT. 1) - Israel has begun supplying Azerbaijan
>with military equipment -- badly needed for its four-year-
>old war against Armenia over the future of Nagorno-Karabakh,
>a predominantly Armenian-populated enclave inside
>Azerbaijan.
>    IPS has learned that Israeli supplies to Azerbaijan
     ~~~~ <<< Huh?
>include U.S.-built shoulder-fired anti-aircraft Stinger
>missiles, as well as sophisticated military communications
>equipment which allows units at the front to communicate
>with one another.
>    Disclosure of the Israeli move is likely to provoke an
>outcry from Armenia which is desperately seeking ways to
>establish close cooperation with the Jewish state. Informed
>officials in various countries, including nations not
>involved in the conflict, refused to discuss the issue for
>attribution.
>    "The Armenian government has believed for quite a while
>that Israel is providing Azerbaijan with military equipment.
>Moreover, Israeli advisors and military trainers are in
>Azerbaijan. Azeris are also being trained in Israel," said a
>government source reached by telephone in the Armenian
>capital of Yerevan in response to the disclosure of the
>Israeli move.
>    It was also not immediately clear how the United States
>would respond to the disclosure of U.S.-built weapons
>flowing via Israel to Azerbaijan.
>    The United States has steered clear of the Azerbaijani-
>Armenian dispute, allowing the Conference on Security and
>Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and the Commonwealth of
>Independent States (CIS) to take the lead in attempts to
>resolve it.
>    Sources in Istanbul and Washington this week said the
>Israeli supplies may be connected to a recent visit to
>Azerbaijan by retired U.S. Gen. Richard Secord, former
>director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry David
>Kimche, and Israeli secret service officials.
>    Secord and Kimche achieved notorious fame in the 1980s
>through their key roles in "Irangate" -- the covert sale of
>U.S. arms to Iran -- and in the support Washington gave to
>the Nicaraguan contras.
>    The sources, some of whom claimed to have seen Secord
>and Kimche in Azerbaijan said the purpose of their visit had
>been shrouded in secrecy.
>    Denying that his country was seeking a military
>relationship with Israel, Azerbaijan President Abulfez
>Elchibey said in an interview last week that Baku is not
>seeking military assistance "from any country."
>    "You start accepting military assistance and your
>relationship starts changing. If we start taking weapons
>from Israel or the United States, Armenia will take weapons
>from Britain or France and the war will escalate. I would
>like to contain the war."
>    Reports of Israeli arms supplies come as Azerbaijan and
>Turkey, in a bid to prevent Iran and other Islamic states f
>making serious inroads into former Soviet Muslim republics,
>are urging Israel to step up its involvement in the Caucasus
>and Central Asia.
>    The move follows a reported agreement by the United
>States to fund Israeli projects in Central Asia involving
>agriculture, irrigation, trade and the training of
>personnel.
>    It also coincides with desperate Armenian efforts to
>spark greater interest in the fate of a country Armenians
>feel close to because of the shared experience of a
>holocaust.
>    While Israel has established diplomatic relations with
>all nations in the Caucasus and Central Asia with the
>exception of Turkmenistan which maintains close ties to
>Iran, it has yet to open embassies in a number of those new
>states.
>    Nevertheless, Muslims in the Caucasus and Central Asia,
>including the Shi'ites of Azerbaijan, have high expectations
>of their budding relationship with the Jewish state.
>    "We would like to encourage relations between Israel and
>Azerbaijan to progress along the lines of Israel sending
>agricultural and other technical advisors in areas in which
>Israel  excels. Israel could sign contracts here," Elchibey
>told IPS.
>    During a visit to Israel earlier this month as part of a
>delegation that included senior officials from Uzbekistan
>and Kazakhstan, Vafa Gouluzadeh, a senior foreign policy
>advisor to Elchibey, warned Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon
>Peres of fundamentalist Islamic efforts to influence
>policies of the former Soviet republics.
>    "I told him that the fundamentalists are working very
>hard to influence the republics. They are spending money,
>taking people to their countries, inviting them to Muslim
>conferences. Meanwhile, the West is sleeping, it is waiting
>to see if fundamentalism will be on the rise," Gouluzadeh
>said.
>    "I told him you shouldn't just wait, you should be more
>active. You should create a fund to introduce western
>influence, to create schools and colleges, invite people to
>your universities and conferences. Peres liked the idea,"
>added Gouluzadeh, an orientalist by training who served as a
>Soviet diplomat in Cairo and Algeria.
>    A well-placed Turkish diplomat also agreed that Israel
>has a "serious and strong role to play." "Israel could
>provide assistance, trade, economic relations; Israeli
>companies could enter the Azerbaijani market possibly
>together with Turkish and U.S. companies."
>    Adding that it was crucial for the stability of the
>region for Turkey and Israel to have "very good relations,"
>he said: "We are encouraging Jews in Turkey to seek contact
>with Jews in Azerbaijan."
>    He said the Turkish government had gone to great length
>to persuade the Turkish Jewish community to finance
>participation of Azeri Jews in this year's festivities for
>the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Jews from Spain from
>where they had been expelled in 1492.
>    An estimated 40,000 Jews -- half of which are Persian-
>speaking Tats -- still live in Azerbaijan following the
>major wave of emigration to Israel.

	[ deleted ]

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