Month: November 2016

Photo: Reuters

 

The detention of journalists from independent newspaper Cumhuriyet, the closure of the remaining Kurdish media, and the jailing of elected mayors in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir in the space of two days is evidence of the deepening crackdown in Turkey, Human Rights Watch said today.

On the morning of October 31, 2016, police detained Murat Sabuncu, the editor of the independent Cumhuriyet daily newspaper and, during the course of the day, 11 more of its journalists and managers. There are warrants out for the arrest of at least three more, including former editor Can Dündar. The Istanbul prosecutor alleges that the newspaper has “committed crimes on behalf of” both the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and what the government refers to as the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization, led by the US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen.

“Targeting one of Turkey’s last independent opposition newspapers with ludicrous charges shows the depths of the Turkish government and president’s crackdown,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey director at Human Rights Watch. “Over 160 media outlets have been closed down since the failed coup, and there are few critical voices that have not been ruthlessly silenced.”

President of the Belgian Senate Christine Defraigne visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial today, accompanied by Vice-Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Hermine Naghdalyan and Head of the Armenia-Belgium Deputy Friendship Group Shirak Torosyan.

Christine Defraigne and members of her delegation laid flowers at the memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims and paid tribute to the memory of the victims with a minute of silence.

Noting that Belgium was one of the first countries to recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide, Mrs. Defraigne said: “We continue the work at the Senate and we attach importance to the adoption of a bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide, which is important for the heirs of both genocide victims and its perpetrators. We would like the Armenian and Turkish communities to come together one day.”

On November 1, while paying an official visit to Jakarta, Edward Nalbandian, Foreign Minister of Armenia, was received by Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, Vice President of Indonesia.

Welcoming the Foreign Minister of Armenia, the Vice President of Indonesia attached importance to the further deepening of bilateral relations, in that regard outlining the significance of the visit of the Foreign Minister of Armenia to Jakarta.

During the meeting the sides emphasized the necessity to intensify political dialogue between Armenia and Indonesia, to expand cooperation between different agencies, to foster trade and economic cooperation, while attaching importance to the organization of business forums, establishment of interaction between the trade palaces, promotion of people-to-people contacts and tourism to that end.

Jusuf Kalla and Edward Nalbandian exchanged views on a number of international and regional issues and the efforts being undertaken towards their settlement. The interlocutors mutually outlined the necessity to settle issues exclusively through peaceful means by excluding the use of force.

On the same day Edward Nalbandian visited the Parliament of Indonesia, where he had a meeting with Agus Hermanto, Vice Speaker of the House of Representatives of Indonesia, and the members of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

At the meeting the possibilities to develop cooperation between the Parliaments of the two countries was discussed, importance was attached to the establishment of friendship groups and collaboration within the international parliamentary formats.

The interlocutors touched upon numerous issues of bilateral agenda, as well as expansion of legal framework.

Upon the request of the Indonesian Parliamentarians, Minister Nalbandian presented Armenia’s foreign policy priorities, touched upon the efforts exerted by Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to create conductive conditions for the advancement of settlement process of the Azerbaijan-Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) conflict.

The Foreign Minister of Armenia and the Vice Speaker of the Parliament of Indonesia share the view that attempts to give a religious pretext to conflicts is inadmissible and issues need to be solved exclusively through negotiations and peaceful means.

Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan received today the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambasssador Andrzej Kasprzyk.

The Armenian Defense Minister briefed Ambassador Kasprzyk on the situation at the line of contact and underlined that Azerbaijan has been recently keeping tensions high at the line of contact by increasing the number of shots and using weapons of larger caliber.

He said the Armenian forces resort to response actions only in case of extreme necessity and remain committed to the restraining strategy.

Ambassador Kasprzyk noted, in turn, that the Office of the Personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office maintains efforts to ease tensions at the line of contact and said he hopes for progress in that direction in the near future.