Month: September 2013

HAIRIKYAN BELIEVES THAT PUTIN WANTS TO RESTORE THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE

September 18 2013

On September 14, during a meeting in Georgian village Tekali, Paruyr
Hayrikyan presented his book “To absolute democracy”. In particular,
he said,- “We all, Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani peoples,
are the victims of the Bolshevik dictatorship. All our problems
are coming from there. We need to always realize it and understand
that when there is no mutual understanding in us, it means the the
dictatorship is ruling that is imposed on us. It is very important
for us that we take our fate in our hands. The main problem in the
post-Soviet period was that not people solve the problem, but the KGB’s
former agents, in other words, the Bolshevik Empire now continues to
exist with new rules, but the idea is still dominating. The issue
of Armenian-Georgian border is a minor problem, but someone would
like Armenians and Georgians live in peace, they managed to involve
Azerbaijanis deep in the conflict, now they want Armenians to get
into conflict with Georgians, then Armenia’s dependence on Russia
will grow. They already succeeded in doing a lot. In recent days,
all Armenians were shocked at how it turned out, we were saying that
we live in European values, we are going to Europe, suddenly, one day,
the President made a sole statement that no, we prefer Putin Russia.

It does not refer to Russia, the matter is about Putin Russia. And who
is Putin? Putin regrets that the peoples liberated from the Soviet
empire, he has repeatedly said, we were forced to call the Soviet
Union, but it was Russia, the Russian empire, and our goal is to
restore the Russian empire.” Voskan SARGSYAN

Read more at:

U.S. MILITARY CONFIRMS REBELS HAD SARIN

[ Part 2.2: “Attached Text” ]

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

Classified document shows deadly weapon found in home of arrested
Islamists

F. Michael Maloof

F. Michael Maloof, staff writer for WND and G2Bulletin, is a former
senior security policy analyst in the office of thesecretary of
defense.

As part of the Obama administration’s repeated insistence – though
without offering proof – that the recent sarin gas attack near Damascus
was the work of the Assad regime, the administration has downplayed
or denied the possibility that al-Qaida-linked Syrian rebels could
produce deadly chemical weapons.

However, in a classified document just obtained by WND, the U.S.

military confirms that sarin was confiscated earlier this year from
members of the Jabhat al-Nusra Front, the most influential of the
rebel Islamists fighting in Syria.

The document says sarin from al-Qaida in Iraq made its way into Turkey
and that while some was seized, more could have been used in an attack
last March on civilians and Syrian military soldiers in Aleppo.

The document, classified Secret/Noforn – “Not for foreign distribution”
– came from the U.S. intelligence community’s National Ground
Intelligence Center, or NGIC, and was made available to WND Tuesday.

It revealed that AQI had produced a “bench-scale” form of sarin in
Iraq and then transferred it to Turkey.

A U.S. military source said there were a number of interrogations as
well as some clan reports as part of what the document said were “50
general indicators to monitor progress and characterize the state of
the ANF/AQI-associated Sarin chemical warfare agent developing effort.”

“This (document) depicts our assessment of the status of effort at its
peak – primarily research and procurement activities – when disrupted
in late May 2013 with the arrest of several key individuals in Iraq
and Turkey,” the document said.

“Future reporting of indicators not previously observed would suggest
that the effort continues to advance despite the arrests,” the NGIC
document said.

The May 2013 seizure occurred when Turkish security forces discovered
a two-kilogram cylinder with sarin gas while searching homes of Syrian
militants from the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra Front following
their initial detention.

The sarin gas was found in the homes of suspected Syrian Islamic
radicals detained in the southern provinces of Adana and Mersia.

Some 12 suspected members of the al-Nusra Front were arrested. At the
time, they were described by Turkish special anti-terror forces as the
“most aggressive and successful arm” of the Syrian rebels.

In the seizure, Turkish anti-terror police also found a cache of
weapons, documents and digital data.

At the time of the arrest, the Russians called for a thorough
investigation of the detained Syrian militants found in possession
of sarin gas.

This seizure followed a chemical weapons attack in March on the Khan
al-Assal area of rural Aleppo, Syria. In that attack, some 26 people
and Syrian government forces were killed by what was determined to
be sarin gas, delivered by a rocket attack.

The Syrian government called for an investigation by the United
Nations. Damascus claimed al-Qaida fighters were behind the attack,
also alleging that Turkey was involved.

“The rocket came from a place controlled by the terrorists and which
is located close to the Turkish territory,” according to a statement
from Damascus. “One can assume that the weapon came from Turkey.”

The report of the U.S. intelligence community’s NGIC reinforces a
preliminary U.N. investigation of the attack in Aleppo which said
the evidence pointed to Syrian rebels.

It also appears to bolster allegations in a 100-page report on an
investigation turned over to the U.N. by Russia. The report concluded
the Syrian rebels – not the Syrian government – had used the nerve
agent sarin in the March chemical weapons attack in Aleppo.

While the contents of the report have yet to be released, sources
tell WND the documentation indicates that deadly sarin poison gas was
manufactured in a Sunni-controlled region of Iraq and then transported
to Turkey for use by the Syrian opposition, whose ranks have swelled
with members of al-Qaida and affiliated groups.

The documentation that the U.N. received from the Russians indicated
specifically that the sarin gas was supplied to Sunni foreign fighters
by a Saddam-era general working under the outlawed Iraqi Baath party
leader, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.

Al-Douri was a top aide to Saddam Hussein before he was deposed as
Iraqi president.

The sarin nerve gas used in the Allepo attack, sources say, had
been prepared by former Iraqi Military Industries Brig. Gen. Adnan
al-Dulaimi. It then was supplied to Baath-affiliated foreign fighters
of the Sunni and Saudi Arabian-backed al-Nusra Front in Aleppo,
with Turkey’s cooperation, through the Turkish town of Antakya in
Hatay Province.

The source who brought out the documentation now in the hands of the
U.N. is said to have been an aide to al-Douri.

Al-Dulaimi was a major player in Saddam’s chemical weapons production
projects, the former aide said. Moreover, Al-Dulaimi has been working
in the Sunni-controlled region of northwestern Iraq where the outlawed
Baath party now is located and produces the sarin.

The NGIC depiction of the variety of sarin as “bench-scale” reinforces
an analysis by terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky, who said the recent
findings on the chemical weapons attack of Aug. 21 on the outskirts
of Damascus, Syria, was “indeed a self-inflicted attack” by the Syrian
opposition to provoke U.S. and military intervention in Syria.

Bodansky, a former director of the U.S. Congressional Task Force on
Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, said a preliminary analysis of
the sarin showed that it was of a “kitchen” variety and not military
grade.

He questioned that the sarin was of a military variety, which
accumulates around victims’ hair and loose clothing.

Because these molecules become detached and released with any movement,
Bodansky said, “they would have thus killed or injured the first
responders who touched the victims’ bodies without protective clothes
… and masks.”

Various videos of the incident clearly show first responders going
from patient to patient without protective clothing administering
first aid to the victims. There were no reports of casualties among
the first responders.

“This strongly indicates that the agent in question was the slow acting
‘kitchen sarin,'” Bodansky said.

“Indeed, other descriptions of injuries treated by MSF (The French
group Doctors Without Borders) – suffocation, foaming, vomiting and
diarrhea – agree with the effects of diluted, late-action drops of
liquefied Sarin,” he said.

The terrorism expert said that the jihadist movement has technologies
which have been confirmed in captured jihadist labs in both Turkey
and Iraq, as well as from the wealth of data recovered from al-Qaida
in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002.

He added that the projectiles shown by the opposition, which were
tested by U.N. inspectors, are not standard weapons of the Syrian army.

Meanwhile, an  Italian former journalist and a Belgian researcher who
were recently freed from their al-Nusra captives say they overheard
their captors talking about their involvement in a deadly chemical
attack “last month,” which would have been the Aug. 21 chemical
weapons attack.

The Italian, Domenico Quirico, and Belgian researcher Pierre Piccinin
were released Monday after five months of captivity.

“The government of Bashar al-Assad did not use Sarin gas or other
types of gas in the outskirts of Damascus,” Piccinin said.

While captive, Piccinin said the two had overheard a Skype conversation
in English among three people.

“The conversation was based on real facts,” said Quirico, claiming
one of the three people in the alleged conversation identified himself
as a Free Syrian Army general.

He added that the militants said the rebels carried out the attack
as a provocation to force the West to intervene militarily to oust
the Assad regime.

Both men told a news conference they had no access to the outside
world while they were held captive and knew nothing about the use of
chemical weapons until they heard the discussion on Skype.

Now, a former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, Ray
McGovern, similarly backs the claim that the Syrian rebels perpetrated
the poison gas attack on Aug. 21

McGovern was one of a number of veteran intelligence professionals
who recently signed a letter to Obama saying that Damascus wasn’t
behind the Aug. 21 chemical attack.

[PoisonGasSign-281×275.jpg] As WND recently reported, former U.S.

intelligence analysts claim current intelligence analysts have told
them Assad was not responsible for the Aug. 21 poison gas attack,
saying there was a “growing body of evidence” that reveals the incident
was a pre-planned provocation by the Syrian opposition.

The analysts, in an open letter to Obama, referred to a meeting
a week before the Aug. 21 incident in which opposition military
commanders ordered preparations for an “imminent escalation” due to
a “war-changing development” that would be followed by the U.S.-led
bombing of Syria. They said the growing body of evidence came mostly
from sources affiliated with the Syrian opposition and its supporters.

Those reports, they said, revealed that canisters containing chemical
agents were brought into a suburb of Damascus, where they were
then opened.

“Initial meetings between senior opposition military commanders and
Qatari, Turkish and U.S. intelligence officials took place at the
converted Turkish military garrison in Antakya, Hatay Province, now
used as the command center and headquarters of the Free Syrian Army
and their foreign sponsors,” the analysts said.

The VIPS memo to Obama reinforces separate videos, which show foreign
fighters associated with the Syrian opposition firing artillery
canisters of poison gas. One video shows Nadee Baloosh, a member of
an al-Qaida-affiliated group Rioyadh al-Abdeen, admitting to the use
of chemical weapons.

In the video clip, al-Abdeen, who is in the Latakia area of Syria,
said his forces used “chemicals which produce lethal and deadly gases
that I possess.”

n/

MARKARIAN DISCUSSES CUSTOM’S UNION, HOVHANESSIAN AMBASSADORSHIP

Wednesday, September 18th, 2013
Hrant Markarian

BY VARAK KETSEMANIAN
>From The Armenian Weekly

In a recent interview on the “Yerkrin Hartse” television program in
Armenia, Hrant Markarian, the chairperson of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (ARF) Bureau, presented the ARF’s stance on various issues
concerning the Armenian Republic today.

Since Sept. 3, he said, when Armenia decided to join the Russian-led
Custom’s Union, most of the discussions and debates in the country
have revolved around this issue. The public reaction against the
move has been strong, since it was seen as an unexpected and unusual
declaration by the government.

It is not a secret, Markarian explained, that our defense structure is
based on a Russian system. This is why changing it will require a lot
of time. This problem is independent of our will, he said. However,
if we take into consideration that the main problem in Armenia is that
of energy, we can easily see which possibility or option is in our
best interest. Thus, our position is not driven by our desire; we must
take into consideration what is possible. If we are to consider this
issue from a sentimental perspective, and ignore the fact that we are
still in a war, or ignore the geographical location of Armenia and the
features of our defense system, it would be easy to choose Europe over
Russia. But addressing this problem from such a viewpoint is wrong.

The primary concern for us is not the sentimental aspect of the
problem, but rather the responsibility with which we should deal
with it. Yet, he went on, the shortcoming of this decision was the
fact that the Armenian authorities did not create possibilities for
establishing a unified government position on this issue, which is
why the public and the other political parties were all surprised.

Regarding the negotiations with the European Union, Markarian stated
that the whole process was not useless. Adopting European values
and making our country conform to them is the main goal that we
should pursue, he said. In other words, we must seek European values
without necessarily joining the European Union. We believe in the
right of the people to choose their representatives, he explained,
and therefore we do not need the intervention of the Europeans in
establishing democracy in Armenia. By not refusing Europe completely
on the one hand, and choosing the Russian direction on the other,
we have brought relief to our people, soldiers, and army, he said.

Markarian also talked about Armenian foreign policy and explained that
while the ARF’s problem with the Armenian authorities is internal,
it shouldn’t come at the expense of Karabagh, or the right of
future generations, or the campaign for genocide recognition. That
which strengthens our state and economy must not be a victim in this
internal conflict, he underscored. Regarding ARF Bureau member Vahan
Hovhannesian’s ambassadorship, Markarian made it clear that it does not
mean the ARF is sympathetic to the foreign policy of Armenia; rather,
Hovhannesian was the best candidate they had. Markarian believes that
this is a positive if rare move on the part of the authorities, for the
ARF, and for Hovhannesian himself. He made it clear that Hovhanessian
is the kind of political figure who would resign immediately if he
were made to work against his principles and beliefs.

Markarian stated that Hovhannesian will be sent to Germany, and
that he is looking forward to the strengthening of Armenian-German
relations, especially before the centenary of the Armenian Genocide,
which would counter-balance the Turkish lobby there. The Armenian
authorities assigned a political mission to Hovhannesian, he said.

He concluded by emphasizing that just because the ARF opposes the
current president of Armenia, it does not prevent the party from
accepting offers that would benefit the Republic in general. The
ARF clearly differentiates where the homeland begins and where the
government does, and where statehood and homeland end, he said.

ACTIVISTS PLEDGE PROTESTS AS FARE HIKES THREATEN RETURN

Wednesday, September 18th, 2013

A protester holds a sign, “We won’t pay 150 drams!” (Photo by Nayiry
Ghazarian, The Armenian Weekly)

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Youth activists challenging Yerevan’s municipal
administration pledged on Wednesday to launch a new campaign of
protests against what they see as government plans to significantly
raise the cost of public transport in the Armenian capital.

More than 60 private firms operating bus and minibus routes in the
city demanded such a price hike in a joint appeal to the Mayor’s
Office earlier this week. They said they will continue incurring
serious losses unless the existing fares are raised from 100 drams
(24 U.S. cents) to 150-200 drams per ride.

The municipality already raised transport fees by over 50 percent
in July. But it failed to enforce the unpopular decision due
to unprecedented protests organized by hundreds of mostly young
activists. The latter succeeded in convincing many commuters not to
pay higher fees. The fare hike was suspended as a result.

Yerevan Mayor Taron Markarian last month did not rule out the
possibility of making another attempt to raise the fares. Markarian
said his final decision will be based on the recommendations of an
ad hoc commission on transport set up by him.

Sevak Mamian, one of the leaders of the vocal youth movement,
described the joint appeal by the transport firms as a prelude to
a renewed surge in bus fares. He said the activists are therefore
gearing up for fresh street protests.

“I think that the protests will be bigger than the previous ones
because our citizens saw that their struggle can produce results,”
Mamian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “For instance,
among my acquaintances there are many people who didn’t participate in
our last demonstrations but will now definitely take to the streets.”

The municipality said in July that one of the factors behind its
intention to raise the fares is a recent 50 percent rise in the price
of Russian natural gas delivered to Armenia. Virtually all buses and
minibuses in the country run on liquefied or pressurized gas.

The protesting youths and other government critics dismiss this
explanation, saying that Yerevan’s municipal transport system is
inherently flawed because of government corruption. They say that
many of the lucrative bus routes have long been controlled by senior
officials, including Mayor Markarian, and their relatives.

CHEESE PRODUCED BY 2 ARMENIAN COMPANIES BANNED IN US

September 18, 2013 | 19:20

Cheese produced by two Armenian companies is one of the items
mentioned in the Import Alert list issued by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. The list contains 100 products from 28 countries.

Lori Cheese produced by AMM LLC and cheese produced by Duster
Melanya Llc are banned because the first contains Coli typical and
the second E-coli

AMM LLC company is located in Gyumri, while the second in Yerevan.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

ALIYEV LAYS CLAIM TO YEREVAN, PRAISES SAFAROV

Wednesday, September 18th, 2013 | Posted by Asbarez Staff

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev

BAKU-Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday praised axe-murderer Ramil
Safarov as a hero and vowed to “reclaim” Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity by claiming that one day every Azeri can live in Yerevan,
Zangezur and other areas that are part of Armenia.

In a speech, that seemed more like a rant, Aliyev, who was attending
the opening of a so-called genocide museum, said: “Azerbaijan’s state
flag will wave in Shusha, Khankendi [Stepanakert] and Azerbaijanis will
live on their historical lands in the future. Our historical lands are
Irevan [Yerevan] and Zangazur regions.” The museum is dedicated to
the victims of a 1918 “massacre,” which Aliyev claims was committed
by Armenians against Azeris. The fact that a country of Azerbaijan
did not exist until 1918 seems to escape the Azeri leader.

On another note, Aliyev blamed what he called “Armenian fascism”
on the international community’s reaction to crowning Safarov a hero.

“I was condemned baselessly and so many foreign dishonest politicians
made accusations against me, because the Azerbaijani officer,
Ramil Safarov, returned [to his] homeland and I gave him freedom,”
said Aliyev.

“Even the European Parliament adopted a resolution on this issue and
condemned my actions. But even today I can say firmly that Azerbaijan
has returned its officer to the homeland, given him freedom and
established justice. But look at the world press, international
organizations, how many groundless accusations they have made against
Azerbaijan,” Aliyev said.

The Azeri leader went on to stress that all factors, including economic
and military ones, indicate that in a matter of time Azerbaijan “will
restore its territorial integrity” and reclaim its “historic lands,”
which includes the capital of Armenia, Yerevan.

“There will come a time when we live on these lands. I am convinced
of it,” said Aliyev, calling the people of Azerbaijan to action to
“bring this sacred day closer.”

WITH EYES ON NEIGHBORS, AZERBAIJAN AND ISRAEL INTENSIFY TIES

By Cnaan LiphshizSeptember 17, 2013 1:21pm

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, left, meets with Israeli President
Shimon Peres at the presidential palace in Baku, June 28, 2009. (Amos
Ben Gershom/GPO via Getty Images)

BAKU, Azerbaijan (JTA) – With less than a month to go until
presidential elections, the moustachioed smile of Ilham Aliyev
stares down at his countrymen from giant posters scattered around
this bustling metropolis on the Caspian Sea.

The Azerbaijani president has been in office since 2003 and is widely
expected to be re-elected, extending the leadership of the Aliyev
clan into its third decade. Aliyev’s father, Heydar, held the post
for a decade prior to his son’s ascension.

Ilham Aliyev’s tenure has brought greater prosperity to this young
country, but it has come at a price: Widespread corruption and human
rights abuses have earned Azerbaijan a dismal ranking in a survey
of democratic standards in 166 countries conducted last year by the
Economist magazine.

But to the West – especially to Israel – Aliyev is a trusted friend
and the key to a transformation that has developed oil-rich Azerbaijan
from a small nation in Iran’s shadow to a strategic ally and an avid
consumer of Israeli arms.

“The partnership between Israel and Azerbaijan is complicated by
political factors, but ultimately it is moving forward because
it makes sense from an economical point of view,” said Oded Eran,
a former Israeli ambassador to the European Union and ex-director
of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. “Azerbaijan
is reliable enough as a supplier of oil for Israel, and Israel is a
reliable supplier of high-tech and arms.”

Israel has long cultivated ties with this Muslim nation, which has
enormous reserves of oil and natural gas and a 380-mile southern border
with Iran. The Jewish state opened an embassy in Baku in 1992, just one
year after Azerbaijan gained independence from the former Soviet Union.

But Azerbaijan, mindful of antagonizing its neighbor, the partnership
has mostly flourished in the shadows. Azerbaijan still does not have
an embassy in Israel, despite expanding bilateral trade now pegged
at $3 billion a year. In 2009, Aliyev compared relations with Israel
to an iceberg: “nine-tenths submerged.”

The elder Aliyev, a former KGB boss, handled the relationship with
Israel “with great care during those early and unstable times,”
according to Avinoam Idan, a senior research fellow at John Hopkins
University’s Central Asia-Caucasus Institute.

In recent years, however, the partnership has grown much more open –
and more robust.

In 2011, the Israeli defense contractor Aeronautics opened a factory
for military drones in Azerbaijan. The following year, the state-owned
Israel Aerospace Industries sold Azerbaijan $1.6 billion worth of
weapons – a deal that amounted to 43 percent of Azerbaijan’s total
expenditure on arms in 2012. Azerbaijan now supplies a whopping 40
percent of Israel’s oil consumption.

In May, Elmar Mammadyarov became the first Azerbaijani foreign minister
to visit Israel. Mammadyarov met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and President Shimon Peres along with a dozen other ministers and
promised that the opening of an Azerbaijani embassy was “just a matter
of time.”

Israel’s increasingly cozy ties with Azerbaijan have grown in
the wake of a crisis in the country’s relations with Iran. Though
traditionally mistrustful of the Islamic Republic’s penchant for
exporting revolutionary zeal, Azerbaijan had strived to maintain good
relations, signing a non-aggression pact with Tehran in 2005.

But relations deteriorated in 2009 after Iran cracked down on the
large minority of ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. When Azerbaijan
protested, Iranian officials threatened to raise territorial claims.

Israel was named as a factor in the dispute last year when Azerbaijani
officials revealed plans by local extremists, aided by Iran, to blow
up the Israeli and American embassies in Baku.

Also last year, Iran accused Azerbaijan of helping Israel assassinate
Iranian nuclear scientists and gather intelligence. The situation
was inflamed further by a Reuters report that Israel planned to use
Azerbaijani airfields in the event of a strike on Iranian nuclear
facilities.

Israeli and Azerbaijani officials denied the report.

“These reports sound like James Bond stories, and that’s exactly what
they are,” said Raphael Harpaz, Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan,
at his office at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

That said, “Azerbaijan has taken a courageous stand against efforts to
destabilize the region,” Harpaz added – an obvious reference to Iran.

Harpaz said anti-Semitic sentiment, prevalent in much of the Muslim
world, is virtually nonexistent in Azerbaijan, a secular country with
guaranteed freedom of worship and – unlike its abstemious southern
neighbor – teeming with bars and nightclubs where scantily dressed
women dance to Turkish and Russian pop hits.

“Azerbaijan’s economic success and relatively liberal attitudes form
a contrast with Iran’s restrictive policies and a viable alternative,
which is probably making the Mullah regime uncomfortable,” Idan said.

Despite Baku’s attempts to keep the peace, American diplomats believe
Azerbaijan considers Iran “a major, even existential security threat,”
according to an assessment in a leaked diplomatic cable from 2009. The
country’s cooperation with Israel “flows from this shared recognition,”
the cable read.

Idan says Azerbaijan’s closeness with Israel is actually aimed at a
different regional foe: Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbor to the west,
against whom Azerbaijan has fought two wars in the last century over
the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Aliyev considers the conflict unfinished, which has led to American
and European reluctance to sell him weapons he can’t obtain elsewhere.

Israel has no such qualms.

Israel, too, may have broader reasons for cultivating ties with
Azerbaijan. The Jewish state has long sought out non-Arab moderate
Muslim nations as allies as a counterweight to the hostile Muslim
nations that surround it.

Eldar Mamedov, an Azerbaijan-born political adviser at the European
Parliament in Brussels, wrote in January that Israel sees Azerbaijan
as a replacement for Turkey, whose once-close partnership with Israel
hasn’t recovered from the 2010 storming by Israeli commandos of a
Turkish ship bound for Gaza.

But Fuad Akhundov, a historian and government spokesman, told JTA
that personal bonds between Jews and Azerbaijanis over the centuries
has helped cement the bond.

“Jews here have always been perceived as promoters of progress,
part of the elite, as something which holds potential,” Akhundov said.

“These positive feelings had a role in the establishment of warm
bilateral ties.”

Read more:

XACMAZ WORKER AGAINST BASHAR AL-ASAD…INTERVIEW WITH FORMER FIGHTER IN SYRIA

Yeni Musavat, Azerbaijan
Sept 8 2013

>From time to time the national and foreign press report the killing
of Azerbaijanis who take part in the fighting in Syria. The corpses
of some of them have even been displayed on the YouTube channel.

Furthermore, video statements by several Azerbaijani fighters in Syria
have also been broadcast. It is said that they fight in various Syrian
cities for the military units and the opposition against the Bashar
al-Asad regime. It is also said that the number of those who go from
Azerbaijan to Syria to fight is on the rise. The parent of one of
them recently said in an interview with ANS TV that they sometimes
talk on the phone.

[Passage omitted: Previous reports about fighters in Syria]

We are looking for a young man who left his home in this village to
fight in Syria and returned after being wounded. The village resident
who heard we are looking for Anar Mahmudov said: “You are looking
for Anar who was wounded in Syria”. After receiving our answer,
he pointed us to Mahmudov’s house.

Mahmudov was born in 1988. He was not eager to talk with us. Although
the video interview had been agreed, he tried not to reply to
questions with concrete answers. He often asked us to switch off the
camera and expressed his dissatisfaction with how the questions were
constructed. In general, he talked about his involvement in the Syrian
war very briefly, in a disjointed and irregular fashion.

He said that he studied in the village high school in former Xacmaz.

He began praying a year ago. He said that he saw Muslims dying in
Syria and decided to go. His family was not aware that he will go
to Syria. In February 2013 he went to Turkey and then crossed the
border into Syria. According to him, he stayed in a house in the
place called Artma outside the Syrian capital together with eight
people of different nationalities. Mahmudov said that he had no links
with fighters who came from Azerbaijan and that there were people of
various ethnicities: “I worked in Xacmaz as a low-skilled worker. It
is possible to go to Syria with 150 manat. I went on bus to Turkey
and from there reached the border with Syria. I stayed in a place
called Artma in a house with eight other people.

People are not blind and they see that Muslims are killed in Syria.

Fighting occurred outside the place where we stayed. When I was on
the post I received a bullet above the knee. I was wounded and they
took me to a hospital in another place. Then I returned to Azerbaijan
because of the wound. I spent just six months in Syria. I came in
February and returned in July”.

We say that we wish to take a photograph and video of the wound to
his leg. Mahmudov vehemently opposes this. To justify this he said
that religion prohibits him from showing the part above the knee.

Mahmudov said that Muslims in Syria wish for Sharia law: “Just like
there were Afghans in the Karabakh fight, I too went to Syria. Muslims
want Sharia law in Syria. This is a jihad on the road to God. Religion
tells us to fight against those who fight us. Sheikh Fovza has a
fatwa about the jihad. This fatwa obliges us to fight infidels”.

Sheikh al Fawzan has a call to Khawarij on social networks. In the
statement he says “it is essential that you obey your leaders who
call on you to march and fight”.

Mahmudov said that camps have been set up in Syria: “Some fought and
some served as sentries. I have not seen my leader. I returned from
Syria myself. My family did not know when I left. What could they say
when I returned? They would not evict me from the house. I returned,
but I have no job here”.

In general, this youngster who fought in Syria left open and unanswered
many of our questions. He did not say who he met after crossing the
Syrian border, how he ended up in Artma, who welcomed him and how
supplies of food and water were organized. Neither did he answer
our question as to whether the security agencies questioned him. He
only said that they put many photographs in front of him and asked
whether he saw any of them in Syria. Mahmudov did not wish to talk
about his answer.

In former Xacmaz people say that about 10 people went to fight in
Syria. In general, people with long bears and three quarter length
trousers can be often seen in the districts. There are reports that
a fellow spirit funded Mahmudov’s involvement in the fight in Syria.

This also gives grounds to say that many youths like Mahmudov will
travel from the northern region to Syria…

[Translated from Azeri]

From: Baghdasarian

SYRIAN CHRISTIANS IGNORED IN INTERVENTION DEBATE

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
September 16, 2013 Monday

by JOHN KASS

As President Barack Obama pushes to keep his military options open
in Syria, we hear of many sides in that brutal war.

The Islamic factions, the Russians supporting dictator Bashar Assad,
Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

But one group is hardly mentioned.

Their houses of worship have been burned by Islamist rebels. Their
clergy have been kidnapped. Their people have been killed.

And when radical Islamists take a village, the people say they are
told they have three choices: renounce their faith, pay a tax or leave.

They are the Christians of Syria. And they’ve become refugees in
their own land.

And if Assad’s government falls, will the Christians be purged by
Islamic fundamentalists, as happened after the fall of strong central
governments recently in Egypt and Iraq?

“In Washington, there is a very disturbing indifference toward the
Christians of Syria,” said Nina Shea, director of the Center for
Religious Freedom and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

“Our political leaders don’t talk enough about them to make it
an issue, and many of our American religious leaders find it
inconvenient,” she told me in an interview. “It’s as if it is
politically incorrect to talk of this problem. Orthodox Christians
being attacked by radical Islamists, and few of our leaders are
talking about what’s happening to them.”

Not all. Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican from Kentucky, has publicly
raised the question of what happens to the Christians if Assad falls.

But Mr. Paul is in the minority.

As are the Christians of Syria. A few years ago, they made up almost
10 percent of the Syrian population. They were protected – some say
favored – by the regime of the murderous Assad. But now their number
is around 3 percent, according to estimates by Ms. Shea and others.

The other day I met with several Syrian Christians at St. George
Antiochian Orthodox Church in Cicero, Ill. I wanted to hear their
stories.

“When they come into Christian villages that still speak the same
Aramaic language spoken by Jesus Christ, the rebels scream, ‘It is
time for the crusaders to leave!'” said the Rev. Nicholas Dahdal. “And
by crusaders, they mean Christians.”

But don’t they know that the Christians were there long before the
crusaders arrived from Western Europe?

“No. They don’t know over there, and people here ([in America]) don’t
know,” said Rev. Dahdal. “And what worries me is that they don’t want
to know.”

As an Orthodox Christian, I’ve always wondered about this
all-but-willful indifference of the West, and I must admit I have
had some difficulty dealing with it.

Is the blindness caused by the fact that there is no blue-eyed,
blond-haired Jesus to be found in Syria?

The carpenter wasn’t some lanky Anglo.

He was swarthy, as are the people of the Middle East, and his followers
in Syria and throughout the region worship as they have for centuries,
from the earliest days of Christianity, from the time that St. Paul
traveled on that road to Damascus.

The indifference of the West could be due to church politics. Or it
could be that the mere mention of the Christians in Syria – and how
they are under threat by some Islamist groups – further complicates
the already confusing landscape there and weighs down the simple
arguments for war.

I met with parishioners in a conference room at the beautiful
Antiochian church. They are highly educated men and women, mostly
Syrian-born physicians and academics.

They are not supportive of Assad’s reported cruelty, such as the
alleged chemical attacks. But they also want President Obama to
know this:

“If the president drops missiles and destabilizes the government,
the Christians left in Syria will be destroyed,” said Marwan Baghdan.

“They will have no protection. And they’re very scared.”?

“My uncle was 80 years old and was shot by a sniper in the stomach in
his bed,” she said. “Many people have come to Wadi al-Nasara. Entire
families are crowded into one room. They’re afraid to worship.”

Gassan Mohama talked of his youth in Damascus years ago.

“Most of my friends are Muslims,” he said. “We lived together as
brothers. We played together and studied together. And some have
turned to another way. And there is misery.”

The ancient Syrian city of Maaloula, where Aramaic is still spoken,
was taken by extremist Islamists the other day. The New York Times
focused on the rebels’ awareness of their “public relations problem.”

“They filmed themselves talking politely with nuns, instructing
fighters not to harm civilians or churches, and touring a monastery
that appeared mostly intact,” the Times reported

Obviously, you can find Syrian Christians who will paint a much
different picture.

“There is a purification campaign and jihadist elements among the
rebels who see Christianity as blasphemy,” Shea told me. “History has
shown what happens to Christians in the Middle East during times of
chaos. It happened during the Armenian genocide, and most recently
in Iraq and Egypt, with churches burned to the ground.”

And now it is happening in Syria.

When a powerful nation like ours prepares for war, what is not in the
news, what is not included in the rhetoric, can often be as telling
as the large bold type in the official statements.

And among the pro-war elites in Washington, the plight of the Syrian
Christians, and their brethren throughout the Middle East, is often
pointedly forgotten, and pointedly ignored.

John Kass is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.

RASIA ANNOUNCES ACHIEVEMENT OF KEY MILESTONE FOR SOUTHERN ARMENIA RAILWAY IN MEETING WITH ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER

PR Newswire
September 15, 2013 Sunday 1:00 AM EST

DALIAN, China, September 15, 2013

Prior to the start of the World Economic Forum, Rasia FZE announced in
a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan the achievement
of a key milestone for the Southern Armenia Railway, including the
release of a highly favorable feasibility study and the recommended
railway design route from China Communications Construction Company
(“CCCC”).

Joseph Borkowski, Chairman of Dubai-based investment firm Rasia FZE
which owns the 50-year concession for the Southern Armenia Railway,
highlighted the strong economic viability and regional importance of
the railway, as demonstrated by the feasibility study. Having reached
this key milestone, Rasia will now move towards securing essential
regional cooperation for the following financing, construction and
operating stages of the project.

The feasibility study results indicate that the Southern Armenia
Railway will cost approximately US $3.5 billion to construct, have a
length of 305 kilometers from Gagarin to Agarak, and provide a base
operating capacity of 25 million tons per annum. The railway will have
84 bridges spanning 19.6 kilometers and 60 tunnels of 102.3 kilometers,
comprising 40% of the total project length. The selected railway
alignment is nearly 44 kilometers shorter than previously estimated
from Gavar to Agarak and will include the Gagarin to Gavar connection
to the existing railway network, operated by the JSC Russian Railways
subsidiary South Caucasus Railway CJSC.

Mr. Borkowski expressed his sincere gratitude for the time invested
by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan in Dalian, China and for the
strong support of Minister Beglaryan and the staff of the Ministry
of Transport and Communication over the past year. Mr. Borkowski
also reiterated his great satisfaction with the exceptional work and
dedication of the CCCC team, enabling completion of the feasibility
study ahead of schedule, and the positive technical cooperation with
General Director Mr. Viktor Rebets and his team at South Caucasus
Railway CJSC.

As the key missing link in the International North-South Transport
Corridor, the Southern Armenia Railway will create the shortest
transportation route from the ports of the Black Sea to the ports
of the Persian Gulf. The Southern Armenia Railway will establish a
major commodities transit corridor between Europe and the Persian
Gulf region, with conservative long-term traffic volume forecasts of
18.3 million tons per annum. Once the railway is completed, transport
costs and times for the region are expected to improve substantially,
fostering greater regional trade and economic growth while dramatically
strengthening the Armenian economy. The feasibility study suggests a
National Economic IRR for Armenia exceeding 11%. The implementation
of the Southern Armenia Railway Project is a top strategic priority
for Armenia and the region.

SOURCE Rasia FZE

From: A. Papazian