Month: February 2015

BROKEN DREAMS: FAMILY FLEES WAR IN IRAQ KURDISTAN FOR THE DIASPORA, NOT ARMENIA

Anna Muradyan

12:58, February 10, 2015

“When it was snowing, my son went out to play. But it was cold and
I’m called him to come home. Armenia is our father. So why doesn’t
he call us inside?”

The above rhetorical question is posed by Movses Sarkisian, who left
Iraqi Kurdistan for Istanbul.

Movses says that his cousin returned to Erbil after staying in
Armenia for four years. He told Movses that in Armenia they called
him a foreigner and a gharib (stranger) who had grown up among Turks.

People in Armenia are tired. Young people are looking for work in
Europe. Everyone is leaving Armenia. Only the women and girls are
left,” Movses says with a sigh. “We also felt like outsiders in Iraq.

I am angry at Armenia. Why didn’t they take us in? Why didn’t they
leave us outside for so long?”

Movses, his wife and three children left the Dohuk region some six
months ago. It’s been the fourth time. His family history starts in the
village of Arou in the Shirnag (Å~^ırnak) province in south eastern
Turkey near the Iraqi border. Movses says that the entire population
is Kurdish speaking and that Armenians from Arou speak Kurdish as well,
regardless of whether they now live in Australia or Canada.

The Sarkisian family speaks Kurdish at home. None know Armenian except
for a few words here and there.

During the 1915 Genocide, Movses’ ten year-old grandfather
miraculously survived and fled towards the town of Zakho near the
Iraqi border. There, he met his future wife, a member of the native
Armenian community. The couple then moved to Dohuk, some 30 kilometers
away. Movses’ wife is also an Iraqi-Armenian from Zakho.

In Istanbul, Movses has rented an apartment in a building in
the neighborhood of Samatya, where there are many Armenians. The
screeches of his three kids – Yerjan, Tania and Hovig – emanate from
the corners of the dark uninviting rooms. They now attend class at
a local Armenian school.

His wife, Seta Nersisian, smiles and tells a neighbor that they have
a guest from Armenia. The only words she can say in Armenian are,
“I am Armenian. My family is Armenian.”

The family says they chose Istanbul because it is a cosmopolitan
city with many Armenians living there. In addition, Movses says that
the people are kind, and that they all help him out – whether Turks,
Armenians, or Kurds – and that they are even more helpful when they
hear he escaped the war.

Movses is a sculptor who works with wood and stone. He boasts that,
just like Leonardo da Vinci, he comes up with his own designs and
mentions a unique water tank he made that was displayed in Paris. He
also writes poems and songs; mostly in Arabic and occasionally in
Kurdish. His wife used to teach Kurdish at school.

The first time Movses left home was at the age of nine in 1973 during
the Kurdish uprising in Iraq. Holding back tears, Moves, now past
fifty, recounts how he was left on the side of the road because there
wasn’t enough room I the car. “There were 7-8 people in the vehicle
and the driver said there wasn’t any room.”

Movses’ father, who passed away twenty-five years ago, had five sons.

Movses never raised the issue of being abandoned with his parents. He
figures that his father took the decision to abandon one of the sons
so that the other four could live.

Movses’ mother, Elvin Kiroian, suffered a broken hip back in 1990
when U.S. planes were bombing northern Iraq. She flew while running
down the stairs to an underground shelter.

It was difficult moving his mother because they didn’t have a
wheelchair. After relocating, however, the woman is receiving free
medical care at the Sourp Prgitch Armenian Hospital in Istanbul.

I visited Elvin Kiroian, who was born in Zakho and learnt Armenian
at the local school (there’s also an Armenian church there).

“My mother and father dreamt of one day going to Armenia. They regarded
Armenia as the Jews look towards Israel,” says Movses. “They thought
that perhaps our children, if not us, would go to Armenia to live. But
all that is water under the bridge.”

“If Armenia had empty space, many people would come from Iraq, Syria
and other places. Ten years from now, Armenia would be a different
country,” says a teary-eyed Movses. “But all that’s gone with the
wind.”

Movses’ brother Mardiros, who has come to Istanbul to help, remembers
the story his father told him about the officials who came to Iraq
in 1946 inquiring about how many Armenians lived in the north of the
country. (Reference is to the repatriation of Armenians to Soviet
Armenia).

“But they left and never returned because Iraqi officials didn’t
let Armenians leave. But the Jews did,” says Mardiros. “My mother
always remembers the Jewish adage that they constantly said – that
they would go to Israel but that we would not go to our Armenia.”

Mrs. Kiroian says that the Jews sold everything possible and left for
Israel; their promised land. “But we couldn’t. Do you know Kurdish?”

she asks me. Hearing that I do not, she goes on, “Better still.

Yerevan is our place, the place for Armenians. The Kurds shouldn’t
know.”

Speaking of his decision to leave Iraq several months ago, Movses
says he got passports with Turkish entry visas and fled within an hour.

“We couldn’t take much of anything, not even the little cash we had
saved. I left it with relatives.”

Movses says there are forty Armenian families in Dohuk and around
the same in Zakho.

“This time, we were the only ones to flee. Most of the others have no
passports. Others are so rich that they can’t leave their possessions
behind.”

The family still doesn’t know where they will end up. But Armenia
isn’t an option. Their dream about Armenia has gone up in smoke.

“Do you know what it is like to have a dream that is broken?” asks
Movses. “It’s a heavy emotion, very heavy. Because you know there is
no hope afterwards.”

INTERNATIONAL TOURISTIC PORTAL REVEALS KARABAKH’S ATTRACTION

14:08, 10 February, 2015

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. International touristic portals
Wanderlust and MSN have published an article titled “Nagorno-Karabakh:
the Land that doesn’t Exist” dedicated to the exquisite sightseeing of
the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, which are known only to a limited number
of foreigners. As reports “Armenpress”, the author of the article Mark
Stratton states that Nagorno-Karabakh, which perches like a jagged
crown above northern Iran, has become a de facto eastern extension
of Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh could be the world’s least-known wonder,
Stratton said.

The author states that “Stalin sowed the seeds of conflict in
the region in 1921, pursuing a policy of divide-and-rule to combat
ethnic opposition within the fledgling USSR. He severed predominately
Christian Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia, and spliced it to the mainly
Muslim Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.”

“It was from Armenia’s sun-drenched capital, Yerevan, that I made the
330km drive east into Nagorno-Karabakh: the only access corridor. With
me was Armenian guide, Galust Hovsepyan, whose world-weary countenance
belied his encyclopaedic brilliance for history and art.

In Yerevan we visited several poignant reminders of the 1988-94
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, such as the Mother Armenia Military Museum
and Yerablur Cemetery, where 7,000 Armenians are buried from a conflict
that cost 30,000 lives.

>From Yerevan it was a magnificent day’s drive through the cradle of
Christendom to reach Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital.

Mt Ararat was also annexed in 1921 to pacify Turkey but remains highly
auspicious to Armenians. On its foothills, at Khor Virap Monastery,
I clambered into a coal-black zindan (pit dungeon) where St Gregory
the Illuminator spent 13 miserable years imprisoned before emerging
to convert Armenia to Christianity in AD 301 – making it the world’s
first Christian nation.

It’s also noteworthy that the author highlights: “There’s no obvious
wartime hangover in modern Stepanakert, a vibrantly breezy little
capital that’s been industriously reborn. A youthful population
frequents airy boulevards of boutiques and cafes in a city putting
down roots.”

The author also paid a visit to the Stepanakert Museum, where
“raven-haired museum guide, Gayaneh, was keen to reaffirm the
territory’s Christian heritage, showing me khachkars, medieval memorial
stones finely decorated by geometric patterning reminiscent of Celtic
crosses.”

“When the war started, Gayaneh – then aged two – was evacuated to
Yerevan. “My father was a mathematician and stayed to fight as a tank
driver,” she said. This petite young woman told me she too would
fight for Artsakh. It reminded me of something I’d read by Russian
dissident Andrei Sakharov: ‘For Azerbaijan the issue of Karabakh is
a matter of ambition; for the Armenians of Karabakh, it is a matter
of life or death’,” the author noted.

“Shushi’s restored 19th-century Ghazanchetsots Cathedral highlights
an interesting dichotomy. Nagorno-Karabakh’s reviving self-identity
centres on its Christian heritage yet during Soviet times practising
religion was forbidden so worship dwindled and churches fell into
disrepair.”

He also visited Dadivank monastery, which “touches the very nerve-ends
of Christianity. Dadi, a pupil of St Thaddeus (Jude the Apostle),
is said to have travelled to Armenia two millennia ago, spreading
the gospel. The church was originally built in the fourth century but
rebuilt in medieval times. Its antiquated decor comprises sumptuous
bas-reliefs featuring Jude and archaic Armenian script including a
testament of Queen Arzou-Khatoun bemoaning her sons’ martyrdom to
Turkish invaders.”

“The object of our journey was Tigranakert, a 2,000-year-old city
that may one day be celebrated as an ancient wonder of the world. For
now though, a small museum hosts just a fraction of the treasures
trickling from recent archaeological excavations. These reflect the
power of Armenian king, Tigran the Great, whose once formidable empire
(95-55BC) stretched from the Mediterranean to the Caspian. Marc Anthony
and then seventh-century Arab invaders later occupied Tigranakert
before its descent into obscurity.

“Tigranakert is unknown because there was a Soviet prison here so
it couldn’t be excavated until after the war,” explained Varham,
an onsite archaeologist. Most of the artefacts, coins, weapons and
tools are being catalogued in Yerevan. “The richness of these finds
and this architecture demonstrates that several thousand years ago
this was a major trading city between China and Arabia,” he added.”

From: A. Papazian

PRESIDENT AL-ASSAD TO BBC NEWS: WE ARE DEFENDING CIVILIANS, AND MAKING DIALOGUE

10/02/2015

Interview given by H.E. President Bashar al-Assad to BBC News,
following is the full text:

Welcome to a BBC News Special. I am Jeremy Bowen. I am in Damascus, in
the Presidential Palace, the complex which overlooks Damascus city; and
here we have been interviewing the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad.

Question 1: Mr. President, you’ve lost control of large areas of
Syria. The jihadist group that calls itself Islamic State has emerged.

There are perhaps 200,000 Syrians dead, millions have lost their
homes. The UN envoy Staffan de Mistura has called this the most
serious humanitarian crisis in the world since the Second World War.

Has Syria become a failed state?

President Assad: No, as long as the government and the state
institutions are fulfilling their duty towards the Syrian people,
we cannot talk about failed states. Talking about losing control is
something completely different. It’s like if you have an invasion of
terrorists coming from abroad, and the government is doing its job
in fighting and defending its country.

Question 2: Can we briefly go back to when all this started in 2011?

You said that there were mistakes made in the handling of those early
demonstrations. Did you make mistakes yourself?

President Assad: No, I never said we made mistakes in handling
this. I always say that anyone could make mistakes, but there’s a
difference between-

Question 3: Did you make mistakes?

President Assad: There is a difference between talking, or asking your
question, about policies and about practice. There’s a big difference.

If we go back to polices, we took the decision to fight terrorism
from the very beginning, we took the decision to make dialogue on the
national level, and I think those policies are correct. While, if you
want to talk about mistakes in practice and that some mistakes were
committed towards some civilians, that happened from time to time,
and some people were punished for these mistakes.

Question 4: But you didn’t make mistakes personally in the handling
of the crisis?

President Assad: I said every person makes mistakes every day,
otherwise if you deny the mistakes; you deny the human nature of
the people.

Question 5: You talked about the influence of terrorism, as you
called it, from the very beginning, but I was able as a reporter to
go to some of those early demonstrations inside Damascus, in areas
outside as well, and people there were not saying they wanted an
Islamic caliphate. They were saying they wanted freedom, democracy,
not the kind of vision that IS have now for the country. Do you think
you’ve got it wrong?

President Assad: You in the West called it, at that time, and some
still talk about that period as “peaceful-demonstration period” and
I will tell you that during the first few weeks, many policemen were
killed, shot dead. I don’t think they were shot dead and killed by the
sound waves of the demonstrators. So, it was just a fantasy to talk
about this. We have to talk about facts. From the very beginning, the
demonstrations weren’t peaceful. Some who joined those demonstrations,
they wanted democracy, that’s true, but that’s not the general case.

This is first. Second, you’re talking about 140 – the highest number
of demonstrations in one day, all over Syria – 140,000. Let’s make it
one million, let’s say I’m minimizing the number. I’m not, but let’s
say that. Make them one million. One million from 24 million Syrians
is nothing.

Question 6: Now, in 2012, I spoke – I was in Duma which is a suburb
of Damascus, as you know, which has been held by armed groups, armed
rebel groups – and I spoke to a man there who said he defected from
the Syrian Army and this is a quote, he said “I’ve escaped because
I can’t see my people, my Syrian family, being killed by our hands,”
and he meant the hands of the Syrian Armed Forces. Do you think that
some of the activities of the Syrian Army helped create the nightmare
that Syria is in right now?

President Assad: If you’re talking about the conflict taking the
military shape, any war is a bad war, and in any war you have civilian
casualties. That’s why every war is a bad war. So, you cannot talk
about a benign war without casualties. It could have happened, but
it was not policy. When you talk about governments, you talk about
policy. What decisions we make on a political level? As I said;
fighting terrorism, defending civilians, we are defending civilians,
and making dialogue. And if we were the one who killed our people,
as they said, how could we withstand four years while the people are
against us, supposedly, and the West, and the regional countries,
and I spent four years in my position with the government, with the
army, with the institutions, without public support? That’s impossible.

That’s mentally unpalatable.

Question 7: When you talk about terrorism versus what you represent,
I mean, you know the accusation that has been made, that you have
concentrated your forces in recent years against the non-jihadist
parts of the armed resistance, the armed opposition to you, and that
you have tried to give the Syrians, essentially, a false choice
between you and between the likes of Al Qaeda and Islamic State,
by trying to eliminate the middle ground. Perhaps it’s worked well
as a political tactic, hasn’t it? Was that your idea?

President Assad: Anyway, Obama answered your question when he said a
few months ago that waiting for, or depending on, what they called-
the so-called moderate opposition, was a fantasy. It was but a dream.

This is reality. So if I want to-

Question 8: They’re still trying to build up what they call this
moderate opposition, aren’t’ they? But this time to fight against
the Islamic State.

President Assad: But they said it’s a fantasy, he said it’s a fantasy,
we all know it’s a fantasy. Even in the Western media outlets, they
are talking about the ISIS, and al-Nusra, and Al Qaeda affiliates,
organizations and groups prevailing. It doesn’t happen suddenly. It’s
illogical, unrealistic to suddenly shift from moderate to extremist.

They have the same grassroots.

Question 9: I’ve met some of those fighters, and they’ve said to me
explicitly “we are not extremists, we are not Al Qaeda, we are not
ISIS.” They’ve said “if Islamic State came here, they’d kill us.” I
met one group last year, actually in Damascus, who said “we’d like
a country a bit more like Malaysia or Turkey.” I mean, that is not
jihadist, that is not dangerous, is it?

President Assad: So, why did the so-called moderate opposition
evaporate? That is the question. If you have answered-

Question 10: Some say that’s because you’ve attacked them. Because
you’ve killed them.

President Assad: Why didn’t we attack the extremists, like ISIS?

Question 11: That’s my question. Have you attacked them in the
same force?

President Assad: You can say that the government and the President
are shooting themselves in the foot. We ask the ISIS and al-Nusra
to attack our military bases, to kill our soldiers, to kidnap our
supporters, in order to eliminate the moderate opposition. Is that
realistic? Nobody can accept it.

Question 12: I’ve spent time on the frontline with soldiers from the
Syrian Army who insisted that they were patriotic, that they were
patriots, they weren’t cold-blooded killers, but I’ve also interviewed
people, and so have many other journalists and human rights people
and so on, who say that they have suffered badly at the hands of
Syrian soldiers. They can’t all have been lying, surely.

President Assad: How, how surely? Why are you sure?

Question 13: Well, because the weighted testimony, Human Rights Watch
for example, 30th of January this year, has said that forces loyal
to Bashar Assad, “have deliberately and viciously attacked civilians
in opposition-held areas using indiscriminate weapons, notoriously
barrel bombs.”

President Assad: This is a childish story they keep repeating in
the West.

Question 14: It’s childish?

President Assad: Childish. Why? Again, if somebody who’s against
his people, and against the regional powers, and the great powers,
and the West, and survives, how? If you kill the Syrian people, do
they support you, or do they become against you? As long as you have
the public support, it means that you are defending the people. If
you kill the people, they will be against you. That’s common logic,
common sense.

Question 15: What about barrel bombs? You don’t deny that your forces
use them?

President Assad: I know about the army. They use bullets, missiles, and
bombs. I haven’t heard of an army using barrels or maybe cooking pots.

Question 16: Large barrels full of explosives and projectiles which
are dropped from helicopters, and explode with devastating effect.

There’s been a lot of testimony about this thing.

President Assad: They are called bombs. We have bombs, missiles,
and bullets.

Question 17: But you wouldn’t deny that, included under the category
of bombs, are these barrel bombs, which are indiscriminate weapons?

President Assad: No, there are no indiscriminate weapons. When you
shoot, you aim, and when you aim, you aim at terrorists in order to
protect civilians. Again, if you’re talking about casualties, that’s
war. You cannot have war without casualties.

Question 18: There are always casualties in war, and civilians die as
well, but it is the responsibility under international humanitarian law
for belligerents from both sides to do everything they can to protect
civilians, and the accusation against the Syrian Army is that by using
barrel bombs, indiscriminate weapons – and Staffan de Mistura, again,
the UN envoy, he’s talked about the constant fear of barrel bombs –
means that you are not respecting humanitarian law by protecting your
own people. What do you say to that?

President Assad: First of all, we’ve been attacked in Damascus and in
Aleppo, we’ve been attacked by rebels, not vice versa. They’ve been
attacking the Syrians with mortars, so you have to retaliate and defend
your people. That’s self-evident. Second, again, you are talking about
somebody, the government, who is killing its people, and the people
supporting the government. This is contradiction. There’s no logic. But
answer, how can you have support and kill people at the same time?

Question 19: Of course you have many supporters among part of the
Syrian population, but in areas held by the rebels, the accusation
is your people have used indiscriminate weapons which they may well
have attacked places where there are armed rebels, but because there
are civilians there, civilians have also died, and if you used less
indiscriminate weapons, like barrels bombs, then this kind of thing
would not be happening.

President Assad: During the war, you can have any kind of
incrimination, any kind of allegations, every party could blame
the others, but you have to talk about the reality. The families of
those fighters, they came to the government in order to have refuge,
not vice versa. You can go now and see where they live and who takes
care of them. If we would kill civilians, civilians should have fled
to the other side, not come to us.

Question 20: Now, if you stopped barrel bombing, and it does happen,
would you not help your own case internationally? There are people now
who are saying that you are a potential partner in the fight against
the Islamic State and that you could be part of the solution, not
part of the problem, and it would be quite an easy thing, wouldn’t
it, simply to order your generals, to say “look, no more of these
attacks,” and that would be… that would no doubt would improve your
international standing, would it not?

President Assad: So, the first part of your question is about asking
us to stop fulfilling our duty to defend our people against the
terrorists?

Question 21: So, that’s legitimate use of force?

President Assad: Of course.

Question 22: Including barrel bombs?

President Assad: There are no barrel bombs.

Question 23: You don’t have barrel bombs at all?

President Assad: We don’t have barrels. Again, it’s like talking
about cooking pots. So, we don’t have cooking pots. We only have, like
any regular army, we have bombs, we have missiles, we have bullets,
and etcetera.

Question 24: You’ve given up your chemical weapons arsenal, but as
you know that this last week, the international organization which
disposed of the weapons, the Organization for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons, condemned the use of chlorine gas here in Syria,
saying with a high degree of confidence it was used last summer,
not blaming any side, but saying that at the same time as these
attacks, 32 out of 37 people interviewed said they heard or seen
helicopters near the village. Now, the armed groups, the rebels,
don’t have helicopters. Your side has helicopters. Have they been
using chlorine gas to attack?

President Assad: Chlorine gas exists in any factory, in any house in
Syria, in anywhere in the world. It’s not a military material.

Question 25: It can be militarized.

President Assad: Anything can be militarized. This is first-

Question 26: Is chlorine gas being militarized?

President Assad: Second, if you want to use gas as a WMD, you have
to talk about thousands or maybe tens of thousands of victims in
a few hours. That didn’t happen in Syria. Third, we could with our
ordinary armaments-

Question 27: It did happen, last summer, in August of the previous
year, 2013, of course.

President Assad: Who verified who threw that gas on who? Who verified
the numbers?

Question 28: Your side didn’t do that attack?

President Assad: No. definitely not. We were close to the degree that
we could affect ourselves. Second, the number of the victims wasn’t as
they exaggerated in the media. So it’s not a WMD, it’s not about gas,
it’s something… we don’t know what it is, because we didn’t exist
in that region.

Question 29: So you’re not using chlorine gas?

President Assad: No, definitely not.

Question 30: On the fight against the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, the
U.S. and others have said you cannot be a partner in that fight. Would
you like to be a partner, would you like to join-

President Assad: Partner with who?

Question 31: Partner with the countries that are attacking Islamic
State at the moment.

President Assad: Do you mean the alliance?

Question 32: The Jordanians-

President Assad: No, definitely, we cannot, and we don’t have the will,
and we don’t want, for one simple reason; because we cannot be in an
alliance with a country who supports terrorism.

Question 33: Which country?

President Assad: Because you are fighting terrorism. Those countries
who make up the alliance, mainly most of them, support terrorism.

Question 34: You’ve been very harsh in your criticism of the Saudis.

Now, the Saudis say they are against Islamic State. They are frightened
of Islamic State because Islamic State do not want a royal family in
Saudi Arabia, so isn’t it logical that they want them out?

Why would they support them?

President Assad: First of all, the source of this Islamic State
ideology and other Al Qaeda-affiliated groups is the Wahabis that
are being supported by the royal family in Saudi Arabia. So, just to
say that we do and we don’t, this doesn’t matter; it’s what you do,
what is the action you are taking in order to prove that what you
are saying is correct.

Question 35: So, you are saying then that the Saudis bear a high
degree of responsibility for the emergence of these ideologies and
of these armed groups.

President Assad: Definitely, there’s no question

Question 36: So, why have they rounded up and imprisoned so many Al
Qaeda sympathizers inside Saudi Arabia itself?

President Assad: I think what they think is that once it’s going to
be their turn, because the society in that kingdom is more inclined to
be ISIS and to accept such ideologies as the Islamic State, that’s why.

Question 37: Let’s talk about American attitudes. Your departure from
office is still official American policy, but there are signs that
they are softening. Secretary of State John Kerry recently said that
instead of saying… he said that you should change your policies,
that it’s time for President Assad to put the people first, think
about the consequences. So, is that a lifeline that he’s offering? Is
he softening in his attitude? Do you believe that you are now being
seen as part of the solution?

President Assad: First of all, we don’t breathe through the Americans,
we only breathe through our citizens. That’s how we breathe. This is
first. So, it’s not a lifeline for us. Second, it depends on what he
means by changing… what has he said? What’s the word?

Question 38: Put the people first, think about the consequences
of their actions. This is seen as a softening because in the past,
they’ve said “first of all, Assad must go.”

President Assad: So, second, it depends on what Kerry meant by his
statement, or any other official. It’s not about him as a person.

Whatever they say, doesn’t mean for us to be puppets. Whatever they
say, for us it’s about being independent, to work for our interest,
to work for the common interest of others, but we’ll never be puppets
who work against our interests for their interests. So you have to
ask them what they meant by that statement.

Question 39: But you must… surely… Syria has been very isolated.

You’re under sanctions here, people can’t use credit cards, you’ve
been cut off from a lot of the commerce of the world. I mean, you
must surely welcome a situation which might get you back into the
family of nations in a way that you haven’t been since 2011.

President Assad: We’re not against cooperation with any country, we’ll
never be. We didn’t start this conflict with the others. They started,
they supported terrorists, they gave them the umbrella. It’s not about
isolating Syria now; it’s about embargo on the Syrian population or
the Syrian citizens. It’s different from isolation. It’s completely
different.

Question 40: Do you talk to the Americans? There are American planes
in the air above Syria the whole time. Do you coordinate?

President Assad: No, because they don’t talk to anyone unless he’s a
puppet, and they easily trampled over the international law, which
is about our sovereignty now. So, they don’t talk to us, we don’t
talk to them.

Question 41: But I’m curious, that at a time when there are… there’s
the American military in the air above Syria, and your people are in
the air, your air force, the Syrian air force, is in the air above
Syria, that there haven’t been any incidents between the two. No
shots seem to have been traded, no planes have been shot down. That
suggests to me surely that someone is talking to someone here.

President Assad: That’s correct, but again, there’s no direct
cooperation.

Question 42: Direct? Is it via Iraq? That’s what some people say.

President Assad: Through third parties, more than one party, Iraq and
other countries. Sometimes they convey messages, general messages,
but there’s nothing tactical.

Question 43: So, they don’t tell you “we’re going to be bombing at
Raqqa at 10 o’clock this evening, please keep out of the way?”

President Assad: We knew about the campaign before it’s started,
but we didn’t know about the details.

Question 44: And is that a continuing dialogue that you have through
third parties?

President Assad: There’s no dialogue. There’s, let’s say, information.

But not dialogue.

Question 45: They tell you things?

President Assad: Something like this.

Question 46: Do you tell them things?

President Assad: No.

Question 47: And apart from Iraq, which other countries-

President Assad: When we do something in our territory, or on our
territory, we don’t ask anyone, we don’t tell anyone. We just do it.

Question 48: You don’t say, “Look, if you see Syrian helicopters over
a certain area at this hour, please don’t shoot them down?”

President Assad: No. That’s I mean, there’s no tactical cooperation,
or through third party cooperation.

Question 49: Does the bombing of IS benefit your government? Chuck
Hagel, the former U.S. Defense Secretary, certainly said that the
bombing benefitted you, and he resigned shortly after he said that. Do
you feel safer as a result of the fact that the Americans are helping
you take care of your enemies?

President Assad: That question is contradicting with the first
question when you said that we were supporting ISIS in order to get
rid of the moderates. If we are against ISIS, we don’t support ISIS.

So, this question is more realistic. Yes, it will have some benefits,
but if it was more serious and more effective and more efficient. It’s
not that much.

Question 50: Can we talk about the humanitarian situation a little
bit? One of the effective military tactics your… the Syrian Army has
used, is to isolate areas held by rebels, and effectively to starve
them out. But that has had the effect also to starve the civilians,
and that, again, is against the laws of war, starving civilians.

President Assad: That’s not correct for one reason, because in most
of the areas where the rebels took over, the civilians fled and came
to our areas, so in most of the areas that we encircle and attack
are only militants.

Question 51: They may have come to your areas, not because they want
to come, but because their areas are being heavily bombed. I’ve been
in some of the suburbs of Damascus, which are a huge contrast to here
in the center, where sometimes rubble, you know, 20 meters high. And
no wonder people want to get out of there.

President Assad: No, that’s not realistic for one reason, because the
natural reaction of any person, of the people, of the families, of
the population, is to flee from any area where they expect a conflict.

That’s why they flee that area, because they expect fighting between
the army and the militants. They flee that area, and they come to
the government.

Question 52: It is the case though, that your government has restricted
the supply of medicines to rebel-held areas. Elizabeth Hoff, Syria
representative of the World Health Organization, said at the end
of last year that the government is restricting what is sent to
rebel-held areas. Do you accept that is a problem for the civilians
who are still in those areas?

President Assad: You know the northern city of al-Raqqa, that’s been
taken over by al-Nusra first then later ISIS, you know that?

Question 53: Yeah.

President Assad: You know that till this moment, we still send them
food and medicines and everything. So how can we do it for any other
area in Syria?

Question 54: Valerie Amos, who is the UN Under-Secretary-General for
Humanitarian Affairs, said in a statement to the UN Security Council
in the end of January of this year, that… she criticized very
harshly what Islamic State and others are doing, but she also said
the government’s failing, she said, for example, last year, there
were 16 requests for aid convoys, 8 convoys, into Eastern Ghouta,
near Damascus, only 4 were carried out, the other 12 requests were,
“unanswered, denied, or subject to conditions that could not be
accommodated.” And so, for them, that adds up to the Syrian government
blocking aid convoys to civilians in those areas.

President Assad: These same areas are shelling Damascus every day. The
same area that she’s talking about. How can we prevent them from food,
and we cannot prevent them from having armaments?

Question 55: What are you saying, that they should bring in food
themselves rather than just shells?

President Assad: No, I mean that if we can prevent the food from
accessing those areas, can’t we prevent the armaments from accessing
the same areas? How can we allow the armaments to cross?

Question 56: I don’t know how you run the war, but what I said,
the UN is saying-

President Assad: Yes, that’s what I’m asking. I’m just pointing to the
contradictions in their statements, just to know. If you can prevent
food from accessing, you can prevent armaments, and definitely the
priority for us as a government is to prevent the armaments from
crossing.

Question 57: So, if civilians suffer as a result of the lack of these
convoys, that for you is unavoidable, collateral damage?

President Assad: No, we are talking about unrealistic, non-objective
statements. We cannot discuss it as a fact. You know, this is part of
the propaganda against Syria for the last four years. So, whenever
Amos or any other official or any other organization says something
against us, it doesn’t mean it’s real. We have to verify what they say,
and is it part of the propaganda, is it politicized, or what.

Question 58: Do you see yourself as the great survivor now of Middle
Eastern leaders? President Obama called for you to step down as
early as 2011. In 2013, there were lots of reports that you fled
to a Russian warship in the Mediterranean, but you’re still here,
your family is still here. Do you think that, looking back on it,
that you’ve had a lucky escape?

President Assad: No, for one reason; because it wasn’t about me,
to survive, it was about Syria, it was about terrorism, it was about
changing the state and president because they don’t like the state
or the president, they don’t like their polices. That’s what this is
about. It’s not a personalized problem, they want to personalize it
to link everything to the president.

Question 59: But what a price to pay! Syria is in ruins, there are
hundreds of thousands of people dead. You’ve been the commander,
you must bear command responsibility for some of that.

President Assad: Yes, according to the constitution and according to
the ethics of your job, it is your duty to protect your country when
it’s under attack, not to flee and run away, and that’s what we’ve
been doing.

Question 60: I spoke a teacher who comes from Qaboun, which is an area
which is being held by the rebels, after her school was hit, and she
said the shelling is coming from the Syrian Army side. She said it’s
the president’s responsibility to keep children out of this war. It’s
okay for him to fight the terrorists, but what have children done to
deserve this? They don’t have weapons. He needs, both sides she said,
but he needs to stop shelling the schools. What is your message to her?

President Assad: What is the aim of shelling schools, realistically?

Why would a government shell a school? What do we gain from that?

Question 61: Have you shelled schools?

President Assad: Why? No, definitely not. Why? Because we don’t have
an interest. Put aside the duty, put aside the morals of the issue,
talk realistically: what is the aim of any army to shell a school?

Question 62: Do you deny any-

President Assad: The government is going to pay to rebuild the school.

We’re still paying to maintain the destroyed schools. How can we shell
schools? Why do you want to kill students and children? What do we get?

Question 63: You’d say that teacher had the wrong idea?

President Assad: Again, it’s different between having casualties
during the war, because that’s a war, and every war in the world has
these side effects, and between aiming at schools. That’s the big
difference. There’s no way to aim at schools.

Question 64: What keeps you awake at night?

President Assad: What keeps me awake at night? Many reasons that
could affect any human. Life. Could be personal, could be work.

Question 65: Your job?

President Assad: Could be the job, could be personal, like anyone,
I’m human. Anything could affect any human, I’m human; I will be
affected by the same factors.

Question 66: Have you thought about those casualties, and felt or
understood the pain of their families and of the people wounded and
killed and injured?

President Assad: This is something we live in every day. Whether they
are from the opposition, from the other side, or whether they are
supporters, we live with it. We are humans, we live with casualties,
with the death issues on daily basis. There are families who lost
their dear ones, I lost members of my family, I lost friends, I lost
people I work with. This is something we live with every day in pain.

Question 67: President Assad, thank you very much.

President Assad: Thank you

TURKEY-ISRAEL TRADE TIES THRIVING

Tue Feb 10, 2015 10:38AM

This file photo shows a port in Turkey.

New figures show Turkey has been boosting its trade ties with Israel
in recent years, despite the harsh anti-Israeli rhetoric used by
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) showed that
the volume of mutual trade between Turkey and Israel exceeded USD
5.6 billion in 2014, showing a nearly 50-percent increase from 2009.

According to TurkStat, Turkey exported more than USD 2.9 billion
worth of goods to Israel in 2014, while its imports were USD 2.7
billion during the same year.

The trade volume between Ankara and Tel Aviv stood at USD 2.6 billion
in 2009.

The rise in bilateral trade comes as Erdogan has been harshly
criticizing Israel over its brutal and repressive policies against
Palestinians in Gaza.

Turkey downgraded its ties with Israel after the Tel Aviv regime
killed nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists on a flotilla that was
heading toward Gaza in 2010. Another Turkish activist later died of
wounds from the attack. Ankara reacted harshly and while Israelis
later apologized for the killings, the ties of the former allies
remain to be normalized.

Since the 2010 flotilla incident, Turkish officials have taken a more
outspoken rhetoric over Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians.

AK Party criticized

Now the Turkish opposition is accusing Erdogan and his ruling Justice
and Development Party (AK Party) of populism and hypocrisy.

Faruk Logoglu, a senior member of opposition Republican People’s Party
(CHP), criticized the government for pursuing a “cheap and dishonest”
policy in respect to Israel and the West.

“The AK Party acts pragmatically with Israel as well as the US and
the European Union,” said Logoglu.

During the 2014 Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which left more than
2,140 Palestinians dead, Turkish opposition groups urged the Ankara
government to reconsider trade ties with Israel to express solidarity
with the Gazans, a demand ignored by Ankara.

DB/HJL/HMV

From: Baghdasarian

EX-ITALIAN PM MONTI: EUROPE CAN’T APPEAR TO BE ‘TOOL OF US INTERESTS’

Published time: February 10, 2015 11:05

Italy’s former Prime Minister Mario Monti (Reuters)

Washington’s potential willingness to arm the Ukrainian military has
elicited an unusually frank reaction from former Italian PM Mario
Monti, who warned that Europe must not be viewed merely as “tool”
of US global interests.

READ MORE: Le Pen says Washington attempting to start ‘war in Europe’

Recently speaking on private Italian broadcaster LA7, Monti warned that
there was a definite risk of the conflict in Ukraine spilling over.

“For now it’s a limited war, but be careful, you [advocates of arming
Ukraine] are creating among Europeans a climate of mistrust and mutual
misunderstanding that could take us too far,” he said.

When asked how he felt about Washington’s recent proposal that it
could send defensive lethal arms to the Ukrainian military, including
anti-tank and anti-mortar systems, Monti said he believed such a move
would prove “intolerable” to Russia.

READ MORE: Sarkozy: Crimea cannot be blamed for joining Russia

“I believe that the United States does not always realize that Europe
has its problems, and cannot be seen only as a tool of the global
interests of the United States,” he said.

Monti also noted how the West had to make a choice in its decision
to break with Russia, noting that it might be forced to pay a high
cost while losing an ally “in containing terrorism.”

Long viewed as a technocratic leader and Brussels insider, Monti,
who took over the reins from Silvio Berlusconi in 2011, has been a
perennial voice of moderation in Europe.

His comments echo similar statements made by former French Prime
minister Francois Fillon, who told public broadcaster France 5 on
Sunday that the US was attempting to “unleash a war in Europe, which
would end in catastrophe.”

Also on Saturday, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that
Europe is part of “a common civilization with Russia,” saying they
needed to avoid conflict on the continent.

“The interests of the Americans with the Russians are not the interests
of Europe and Russia,” he said, adding that,”we do not want the
revival of a Cold War between Europe and Russia.”

The leader of France’s rightwing National Front (FN), Marine Le Pen,
similarly took Brussels to task for not forming a Ukraine policy that
was independent from Washington’s position.

“European capitals do not have the wisdom to refuse to be dependent
on US positions on Ukraine,” Le Pen told French journalists on Sunday.

“Regarding Ukraine, we behave like American lackeys,” she said,
before warning that “the aim of the Americans is to start a war in
Europe to push NATO to the Russian border.”

ISABEL BAYRAKDARIAN TO PERFORM AT CONCERT COMMEMORATING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

15:33, 10 February, 2015

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Genocide Centennial
Committee presents Grammy Award-nominated Armenian Canadian soprano
Isabel Bayrakdarian in concert with her husband, pianist Serouj
Kradjian, and the Henrik Karapetyan String Quartet in My Songs, My
Heritage at 7 p.m. March 7 at the Ford Community & Performing Arts
Center, 15801 Michigan Ave.

As reports “Armenpress” citing pressandguide.com, concert selections
include Armenian sacred hymns, folk songs, chamber music and 20th
century songs, with English subtitles.

Bayrakdarian, a Canadian of Armenian heritage, immigrated to Canada as
a teen. She graduated from the University of Toronto cum laude with
a degree in biomedical engineering science in 1997, the same year
she was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions.

Her opera career, now in its second decade, makes her an eagerly
anticipated artist at opera houses and concert halls worldwide.

Celebrated for her multi-hued voice as well as her beauty, presence
and style, Bayrakdarian’s career expands beyond opera.

She is a featured vocalist on the Grammy-award winning soundtrack of
Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers, and topped Billboard charts as a
guest soloist with the Canadian band Delerium on their 2007 Grammy
nominated dance remix Angelicus.

Bayrakdarian won four consecutive Juno Awards, presented to
Canadian musical artists for outstanding achievement in the recording
industry, from 2004 to 2007, for classical album of the year, vocal or
instrumental, for Azulao, Cleopatra, Viardot-Garcia: Lieder Chansons
Canzone Mazurkas, and Mozart: Arie e Duetti.

Bayrakdarian received a Grammy nomination for the BBC-produced short
film HOLOCAUST – A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz. She was also
the focus of a Canadian television Gemini-nominated film, A Long
Journey Home, documenting her first trip to Armenia.

A century ago, the Armenian Genocide, planned by the leaders of the
Ottoman Empire, systematically exterminated 1.5 million Armenians
in what is now Turkey. The genocide had two phases: the wholesale
killing of able-bodied men through massacre and forced army labor,
followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly, and
the infirm on death marches to the Syrian Desert. Military escorts,
driving the deportees forward, deprived them of food and water,
and subjected them to periodic robbery, rape and massacre.

In Michigan, the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of Metro
Detroit, comprised of 15 of the area’s leading Armenian-American
organizations, has organized commemorative events throughout 2015
to honor the genocide victims, demand recognition and reparations,
and increase public awareness of all genocides.

SOCIOLOGIST: ARMENIA IS THE 56TH BY THE NUMBER OF DELIBERATE MURDERS IN THE WORLD

by Marat Kadamyan

Tuesday, February 10, 16:23

Armenia has occupied the 56th place in the world by the number
of deliberate murders, director of the “Sociometer” centre
for sociological research, Aharon Adibelyan, said at today’s
press-conference.

“The total of 73 murders were registered in Armenia in 2014, 20 of
which the grave ones. There are numerous reasons of such a number of
murder cases in our country. In particular, first of all, I mean the
high level of aggression in the Armenian society stemming from the
social reasons. Unfortunately, sometimes this aggression has harmful
consequences”, -he said.

The second reason is self-abandonment of many potential murderers,
which sometimes feel sorry after committing a crime. The third reason
is today’s Armenian mentality which supposes settlement of conflicts
through violence.

The sociologist thinks that upbringing of people since their tender
age is panacea that may promote to avert violence and murder cases
in Armenia.

To recall, according to UNODC report for 2014, 2,8 cases of murder for
100 thsd people were registered in Armenia, 2 cases in Azerbaijan,
4 – in Georgia and 11,2 – in Russia. African countries occupy the
first places of the “rating”.

ETHNOGRAPHIST: I AM NOT SURE THAT NO POLITICAL INCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN IN ARMENIA ON 24 APRIL

by Ashot Safaryan

Tuesday, February 10, 16:22

After completion of Armenia’s integration in the Eurasian Economic
Union, neither the president of Armenia nor the Foreign Ministry have
come forward with the analysis of the situation and the explanation
how the country will develop against the background of the global
processes, ethnographist, Hranush Kharatyan, said at today’s
press-conference.

She said that the ambiguity that the country faces, directly affects
its domestic political situation. “The events happening for the last
period of time, I mean the incidents in Gyumri and Berdzor and the
beating up of activists are linked with this ambiguity. Many questions
have remained without answer”, – the ethnographist said.

She is confident that a criminal group of people has been set up in
Armenia, which has been terrorizing the community via close cooperation
with the force structures of Armenia.

When commenting on the intention of the Founding Parliament to organize
the power shift on 24 April, Kharatyan said that date is disputable.

‘I think that the events on power shift could be organized not
in April. Moreover, I am not sure that no political incidents will
happen in Armenia on 24 April. I do not rule out more stormy events
than those which the authorities of the country would like to present
to the external world”, – she concluded.

“CHORRORD ISHKHANUTYUN”: PSYCHOLOGIST OF 102ND RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE IN ARMENIA DISMISSED

by Ashot Safaryan

ARMINFO
Tuesday, February 10, 16:21

The psychologist of the 102nd Russian military base in Armenia –
who was responsible for consultation of the manpower in the period
of the Avetisnyans family murder – has been fired, a Yerevan-based
Chorrord Ishkhanutyun newspaper writes.

According to the source, the military base tries not to disclose this
information to avoid another wave of anti-Russian sentiments.

“Investigation is underway in Permyakov’s abandonment of the
post. No one of the responsible officers have been dismissed, only
the psychologist, who had no military rank,” the paper reported.

The 102nd military base press office has neither confirmed nor
disclaimed the reports.

To recall, a soldier of the Russian military base Valery Permyakov is
charged with murder of a family of 7 persons in Gyumri. He is currently
kept at the base under arrest. Earlier, Russia media outlets reported
citing the military registration and enlistment office of the town
of Baley, where Permyakov was born in, that he was suffering from
oligophrenia.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN HISTORIAN: THERE WILL BE NO MORE COMMISSIONS AND PROTOCOLS WITH TURKS

by Ashot Safaryan

Tuesday, February 10, 16:17

Armenia has both political and legal arguments for appealing to
international courts for compensation for the Armenian Genocide,
Director of the History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences
of Armenia Ashot Melkonyan told journalists on Tuesday.

“We have huge work to do. I think that the next centennial of the
Armenian Genocide will be a period of compensation,” Melkonyan said.

He believes that the political mentality of the Armenians has changed.

“We will have no more Armenian-Turkish reconciliation commissions
or protocols. We will just claim recognition and compensation,”
Melkonyan said.