Author: Alex Jidarian

Syrian army troops recaptured a new village north of Aleppo Monday, bringing troops and allied militiamen to within a few kilometers of the Turkish border as part of a major Russian-backed offensive in the area, the Syrian government and opposition activists said, the Associated Press reports.

State-run news agency SANA said army troops took control of the village of Kfeen in the northern countryside of Aleppo “after wiping out the last group of terrorists there.”

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV and the pro-Syrian, Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen station also reported Kfeen’s capture and aired live footage from the village.

The government offensive around the city of Aleppo has sent tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing toward the border with Turkey. Turkish authorities say up to 35,000 Syrians have massed along the border, which remained closed for a fourth day on Monday.

Turkey has come under mounting pressure to open its border to assist the fleeing Syrians, many of whom have been sleeping in cold weather in open fields near the Bab al-Salameh border crossing.

West called in to Los Angeles radio station Real 92.3 on Thursday morning to discuss his forthcoming album. He chatted with his friend, radio deejay Big Boi, and credited someone much larger than himself for the as-yet-untitled project.

“I’m only doing one percent, two percent of the work and God is doing the rest of the work,” he said.

The rapper also added that he believes both his late mother, Donda West, and late father-in-law, Robert Kardashian Sr., have had a hand in his recent success.

“My mom… had Teddy Riley change his flight and come back to the studio,” West said. “Robert Kardashian is making sure that all the deals is getting done. He’s still doing deals for controversial black people from up in heaven.”

For the 47th consecutive Lenten season, Saints Vartanantz Armenian Church at 180 Old Westford Road, Chelmsford will sponsor a series of six fellowship evenings designed to promote spiritual renewal through prayer and discussion,  reports.

Each Friday evening of Lent, beginning Feb. 12, parishioners will gather at 6:30 p.m. to participate in the Peace and Rest Services, which feature penitential prayers and hymns. Participants will eat a meal prepared according to the church’s Lenten dietary guidelines.

With this year marking the 100th anniversary of the Saints Vartanantz Parish, the focus of the Lenten program will be on the faith and legacy of those who established and expanded the parish over the past 100 years. The brave men and women who escaped the Armenian genocide and immigrated to the U.S. left a legacy of sacrifice and dedication, which has inspired growth of orthodox faith and spirituality for some five generations in the Greater Lowell community. The Lenten fellowship program is dedicated to the memory of a former pastor of Saints Vartanantz, the Rev. Ghevont Samoorian, who initiated this opportunity for the parish to worship, share a Lenten meal and encourage spiritual examination and renewal.

Photo: DHA 

The Executive Committee of the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies (H.R. Network) issued a statement endorsed by 28 Nobel laureates in support of Turkish academics who have come under fire for signing a petition calling for an end to military operations in southeast Turkey, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

In a statement released on Jan. 19, the committee, which uses the international stature of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to advocate in support of non-violent academics, said it was “alarmed” by the increasingly “repressive and inflammatory” reactions of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government against opposition voices.

The H.R. Network expressed concern that “intolerant individuals” and university officials who have joined government officials in accusing the academics, “solely because they publicly expressed humanitarian concerns about the grave crisis in southeastern Turkey.”

“We condemn any threats, false accusations, and incitement to violence against our colleagues by the government of Turkey,” it said, while reminding the government of its obligation under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to ensure that its citizens are free to hold and disseminate their opinions.

“Surely, citizens of a democratic country such as Turkey, and its academics in particular, have a civic duty to remind their government, when deemed necessary, of its obligation to respect Turkey’s constitution, adhere to humanitarian standards for all of its citizens, and give priority to peaceful solutions in crisis situations,” the statement added.

Just a day after the committee’s statement, on Jan. 20, the European University Association (EUA) also published a press release expressing “deep concern” over the treatment of Turkish academics.

“The EUA would also like to underline that, irrespective of the content of the petition, freedom of expression is a core university value and a sine qua non of democratic societies,” the statement said, adding that the Turkish government and the country’s Higher Education Council (YOK) should respect freedom of expression.

The association added that it was “dismayed” by the detention of signatory academics at Kocaeli University, which is itself an EUA member.

Universities and prosecutor’s offices across Turkey have launched investigations into many of the 1,128 local and international academics and intellectuals who signed the petition titled “We Will not be a Party to this Crime,” arguing that the petition went beyond the limits of academic freedoms.

The investigations and detentions came soon after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed the petition’s signatories, stating that human rights violations in the southeast are being committed by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants and not the Turkish state.

Shock and disbelief have erupted online after the wrong Miss Universe winner was crowned, the reports.

Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez was announced winner of the 2015 beauty pageant before organisers revealed she was actually the first runner-up.

Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach was later declared the winner.

#MissUniverse2015 also became Twitter’s biggest trend of the night as thousands of social media users began to express disbelief using jokes and memes.

Facebook users also expressed their opinions on a post shared on the pageant’s official page.

Ms Wurtzbach has since told reporters that she wishes Ms Gutierrez well following the incident.

“I’m very sorry, I did not take the crown away from her and I wish her well in whatever she wants to pursue after this pageant,” she said.

Ms Gutierrez also addressed fans in a backstage video that has been shared on the pageant’s official page.

She said: “Everything happens for a reason so I’m happy for all that I did.”

At the end of the night, Ms Gutierrez was named first runner-up followed by Olivia Jordan from the United States.

Host Steve Harvey responded, saying it was “his mistake” and he would take responsibility for not reading the winning card correctly.

“I’d like to apologize wholeheartedly to Miss Colombia & Miss Philippines for my huge mistake. I feel terrible,” he said in a tweet that was re-tweeted more than 51,000 times.

“I don’t want to take away from this amazing night and pageant. As well as the wonderful contestants – they were all amazing.”

Matchups for the UEFA Champions League’s Round of 16 were set on Monday.

Chelsea will once again face Paris Saint-Germain, the team that knocked the Blues out of the Champions League last 16 last season, while Arsenal, which overcame a disastrous start to the group stage just to advance, will face even longer odds when it goes head-to-head with defending champion Barcelona.

Manchester City, which has had its own bad luck with Champions League group stage draws, caught a break with a matchup against Dynamo Kiev, the runner-up to Chelsea in Group G.

Here are all eight Round of 16 matchups, which will begin with first legs on February 16-17 and February 23-24 and conclude with the return legs on March 8-9 and March 15-16.

As Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accuses Russia of “ethnic cleansing” in northern Syria, an article by Kurt Nimmo published by reminds Turkey about its own history.

“Russia is trying to make ethnic cleansing in northern Latakia to force (out) all Turkmen and Sunni population who do not have good relations with the regime,” Davutoglu said during a news conference in Istanbul.

“They want to expel them, they want to ethnically cleanse this area so that the regime [of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] and Russian bases in Latakia and Tartus are protected,” he added.

Davutoglu also said targeting the supplies lines of Turkish supported jihadi groups will benefit the Islamic State.

“Davutoglu’s accusation ignores the fact the Ottoman Empire and later Turkey more or less pioneered modern genocide and ethnic cleansing in 1915 when it slaughtered between 800,000 and 1.5 million Armenians. The state rounded up and massacred able-bodied males, deported women and children, forced the elderly and infirm to participate in death marches into the Syrian desert, and starved, robbed and raped Turkish Armenians. Christian ethnic groups such as the Assyrians and the Ottoman Greeks were also targeted for extermination,” the author writes.

“The Turkish government has denied it is responsible for the Armenian Genocide. It insists the extermination was the result of deportations during World War One despite the fact the genocide continued until 1923, years after the end of the war,” the article reads.

The author notes that Turkey is also accused of ethnically cleansing Kurds in the 1980s and 1990s. It forcibly emigrated over two million people and destroyed approximately 6,000 Kurdish villages.

“Considering the track record of Turkey in regard to the genocide of Armenians and later the Kurds, Davutoglu’s remarks are at best disingenuous,” the author concludes.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have named their baby boy Saint West, the Daily Mail reports.

The couple announced their son’s moniker on Monday, two days after welcoming him into the world.

Kim, 35, and Kanye, 38, are already parents to two-year-old daughter North.

In a post titled ‘To Our Fans’ on her subscription based website kimkardashianwest.com, the reality star wrote simply: ‘Saint West, 12.05.15, 8 pounds 1 ounce.’

Publisher and human rights defender Raip Zarakolu has been awarded PL Foundation Peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts in the areas of freedom of thought and expression, reports.

Zarakolu will receive the award by PL Foundation President Poul Sögaard on November 10 in Copenhagen.

PL Foundation Peace Prize is awarded to organizations and people who struggle for democracy without resorting to violence within the scope of United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

PL Foundation Peace Prize was firstly awarded to theater director Ali Tuygan from Turkey for his play named Çıkmaz Sokak (Blind Street) about tortures that took place during the Greek military junta.

Ragip Zarakolu has long been an advocate of Armenian Genocide recognition.

Photo: Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov

The pilots from the Russian Su-24 jet downed in Syrian managed to eject, the Russian Ministry of Defense said, Sputnik News reports.