Author: Andranik Taslakhchian

Photo: EPA

 

A powerful cyclone carrying winds of up to 263km/h has made landfall in Queensland, Australia, the BBC rports.

Cyclone Debbie, a category four storm, has left at least 45,000 homes without power and damaged buildings, although it is too early to say how many.

PM Malcolm Turnbull told parliament he had activated a disaster response plan.

More than 25,000 people were urged to evacuate their homes ahead of predictions the cyclone would be Queensland’s most damaging since 2011.

The system is expected to remain for several hours after crossing the coast between Bowen and Airlie Beach.

Photo:PA

 

Five people have died and at least 40 were injured after an attacker drove a car along a pavement in Westminster, stabbed a policeman and was shot dead by police in the grounds of Parliament, the BBC reports.

The dead officer has been named as PC Keith Palmer, 48, a husband and father.

PM Theresa May said the attack was “sick and depraved” and struck at values of liberty, democracy and freedom of speech.

The attacker has not been named by police.

Acting Deputy Commissioner and head of counter terrorism at the Metropolitan Police, Mark Rowley, said they think they know who he is and that he was inspired by international and Islamist-related terrorism, but gave no further details.

The attack unfolded at about 14.40 GMT when a single attacker drove a grey Hyundai i40 along a pavement over Westminster Bridge, near the Houses of Parliament in central London, killing at least two people and injuring many more.

The car then crashed into railings outside the Houses of Parliament.

The attacker, armed with a knife, ran to Parliament where he was confronted by the police. PC Palmer – who was not armed – was then stabbed and killed.

The attacker was shot dead by armed officers.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier has been sworn in as German president. The popular Social Democrat and former foreign minister used his maiden speech to urge Turkey’s President Erdogan to ease tensions between their countries, reports.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier became the president of Germany in a ceremony on Wednesday in Berlin. He has taken over the post from Joachim Gauck and become the country’s 12th president.

Steinmeier used his maiden speech in the position to address Germany’s currently troubled relationship with Turkey, after Ankara accused Berlin of employing “Nazi tactics” in its ban on campaign appearances by Turkish ministers on German soil. Germany has also expressed outrage at the arrest of German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel on charges of producing “terrorist propaganda.”

Steinmeier urged Erdogan to “end the unspeakable Nazi comparisons,” adding: “Do not cut the ties to those people who want partnership with Turkey! Respect the rule of law and the freedom of media and journalists! And release Deniz Yucel.”

A French police sniper has accidentally shot and injured two people during a speech by President Francois Hollande in western France, the BBC reports.

The shot was fired as the officer moved position on a roof about 100m (328ft) from a tent where Mr Hollande was speaking in the town of Villognon.

The bullet went through the canvas of the tent, where drinks were being made. It passed through a waiter’s thigh and lodged in another person’s calf.

The injuries were not life-threatening.

Mr Hollande was inaugurating a new stretch of railway when a gunshot was heard. He interrupted his speech for a few moments but reports say there was no panic.

“I hope it’s nothing serious – I think not,” Mr Hollande said as he paused his address to ask whether anyone had been hurt.

The president later visited the injured – the head waiter of a local hotel and an employee of a railway maintenance company.

One local report said the safety catch of the sniper’s weapon had been unlocked, allowing the gun to be discharged accidentally.

Local government chief Pierre N’Gahane said a judicial investigation had been launched.

Amnesty International has condemned the extradition of a blogger from Belarus to Azerbaijan. “Upon transfer to Baku on 7 February, Alexander Lapshin was taken immediately into custody. In Azerbaijan, he is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment as well as an unfair trial. The criminal proceedings against Alexander Lapshin should be terminated, and he should be released immediately,” the Amnesty said in a statement.

Alexander Lapshin is a popular blogger, and a citizen of Russia, Israel and Ukraine. He was arrested on 15 December 2016 in Belarus, on request from Azerbaijan. Criminal proceedings were initiated by the Azerbaijani authorities against him under Articles 281.2 and 318.2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan (“public appeals against the state”, punishable by up to eight years of imprisonment and “illegal border crossing” punishable by up to five years of imprisonment, respectively).

Alexander Lapshin’s extradition order was issued on 17 January and on 26 January his appeal was rejected by the Minsk City Court. He was extradited only hours after his appeal to the Supreme Court of Belarus was considered and rejected on 7 February.

The accusations against him relate to his repeated visits to Azerbaijan’s breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, in 2011 and.

Amnesty International said it is “not aware of any other cases of extradition requests being made by the Azerbaijani authorities against individuals who have entered Nagorno-Karabakh without their permission. However, there are numerous individuals who have visited the territory without permission from the Azerbaijani authorities and been “blacklisted” by Azerbaijan – put on an official list of offenders who will be permanently refused entry to Azerbaijan.”

Amnesty International takes the view that the extradition and charges against Alexander Lapshin are a means of targeting him principally in connection with his blogs, in particular his criticism of the Azerbaijani border control system and the country’s social inequality. The charge of “public appeals against the state” has no legal basis, as the criticism of the Azerbaijani authorities in his blog falls entirely within the scope of his right to freedom of expression. With regard to the criminal charge of illegal border crossing, the organization maintains that irregular entry should not be treated as a criminal offence. As such, Amnesty International considers that his detention is arbitrary and calls for the criminal proceedings against Alexander Lapshin to be terminated. He should be released immediately.

Concerns were raised regarding the conditions of Alexander Lapshin’s detention in Belarus where he was held at the pre-trial detention center (SIZO) #1 in Minsk. He is also at risk of torture and other ill-treatment while in custody in Azerbaijan. Two days after Alexander Lapshin’s arrival and detention in Baku, he has been refused permission to contact his wife.

Amnesty International has documented numerous cases where individuals who criticized or otherwise publicly challenged the Azerbaijani authorities were arbitrarily arrested and sentenced to imprisonment following unfair trials, and in many cases tortured and otherwise ill-treated in custody. The Azerbaijani authorities have persistently failed to investigate allegations of torture and other ill-treatment and the Azerbaijani courts have on numerous occasions admitted as evidence “confessions” obtained under torture.

“In extraditing Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan, where he is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment, amongst other human rights violations, the Belarusian authorities have failed to adhere to their obligations under international human rights law,” the Amnesty said.

Belarus ratified the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1998, according to which “no State Party shall expel, return or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”

Massis Post – Dr. Umit Kurt, currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, will give a talk entitled “The Curious Case of Ali Cenani Bey: The Story of a Genocide Perpetrator During and After the 1915 Armenian Genocide,” on Thursday, February 23, 2017 at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center.

Within the scholarship on the history of Armenian Genocide, studies of the perpetrators have received and continue to receive special attention. Seen from a wider perspective, it is important to conduct research on the executors of the Armenian Genocide, for even when the agents of genocide are not explicitly mentioned, the consequences of their deeds remain all too visible. Yet case studies of individual perpetrators remain rare.

In this lecture, Dr. Umit Kurt will focus on Aintab—situated on the boundaries of Cilicia and Syria, near both the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Alexandretta—and reveal the activities of the perpetrators and their involvement in the destruction of Armenians at the local/provincial level.

Presenting a wide range of people, functions, actions, and motives that highlight the complexity of the persecution process, but without neglecting the crucial element of personal responsibility, Kurt will explain who these perpetrators were and what their roles and motivations were. The lecture will focus especially on one major perpetrator, Ali Cenani Bey (1872-1934), his background, deeds, active and involvement in the 1915 Armenian deportation and genocide as well as his life story in the post-genocide period in modern Turkey.

Umit Kurt received his Ph.D. in history at Clark University in 2016, with his dissertation focusing on the confiscation of Armenian properties and the role of local elites/notables in Aintab during the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1921. He is the author of numerous historical and political articles in scholarly journals and newspapers, several books in Turkish, and co-author with Taner Akçam of The Spirit of the Laws: The Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide.

With support from its Argentinean-Armenian benefactor Hovsep Tahta, the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund has donated five computers and one server to the National Library of Armenia. This is the second technology-assistance project for the institution to be carried out through the support of the benefactor. In 2013, Tahta donated a large-format scanner, a server, and 15 computers to the library.

“During his visit to the library last year, as Mr. Tahta was being shown the periodicals and other publications we’ve been digitizing, he was deeply moved when he recognized a newspaper from his childhood — published in Istanbul, it was the newspaper which his father used to read at home,” said Tigran Zargaryan, director of the National Library of Armenia, and continued, “Subsequently Mr. Tahta decided to help expand our library’s digitization capabilities.”

Zargaryan added that thanks to the scanner donated by the benefactor, to date 2 million Armenian-press pages and 6,650 Armenian books (comprising a total of 1.7 million pages) have been digitized and are now accessible online.

Currently the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund is building a kindergarten in Noragyugh, a village in Artsakh’s Askeran Region, through Tahta’s sponsorship.

Three Armenian servicemen have been killed in military actions unleashed by Azerbaijan in the direction of Tavush, the Ministry of Defense reports.

The divisions of RA Armed Forces neutralized the assault by the Azeri troops, forcing the rival back to its initial positions. The adversary retreated, incurring losses.

Unfortunately, the Defense Ministry reports losses on the Armenian side, as well. “Senior Lieutenant Shavarsh Melikyan, privates Edgar Narayan and Erik Abovyan were killed in clashes,” Defense Ministry Spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said in a Facebook post.

The Ministry shares the sorrow of the heavy loss and expresses its condolences to the relatives of the fallen soldiers.

The Defense Ministry possesses undeniable proofs of violation of the Armenian state border by the Azeri side. The military –political leadership of Azerbaijan bears full responsibility for the provocation, the Ministry said.

The possible escalation of the Karabakh conflict will not benefit either Armenia or other countries of the region, Armenian’s Defense minister Vigen Sargsyan said in an interview with Lenta.ru. He did not rule out the possibility of resumption of armed conflict with Azerbaijan.

“A trilateral agreement on ceasefire was signed between Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia in 1994. Unfortunately, Baku has been torpedoing the peace process for over 20 years now. Moreover, it has been foiling all attempts of the international community in the face of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to seek ways of conflict settlement. The large-scale military adventure against Nagorno Karabakh Azerbaijan undertook this April was a complete failure. We base our work on the presumption of the possibility of resumption of hostilities,” the Armenian Defense Minister said.

He added that “it’s pretty obvious that the possible escalation of the conflict will not benefit either Armenia or other countries of the region.”

“As the guarantor of security of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, Yerevan will have to engage in the conflict. It’s clear that the resumption of war will become a serious threat for the whole South Caucasus,” Vigen Sargsyan said.

The Armenian National Assembly voted 83 to 24 with one abstention today to approve State Budget for FY2017.

Speaking before the voting, MPs from Prosperous Armenia and the Armenian National Congress said the factions would vote against the bill.

MP Tigran Urikhanyan also urged lawmakers to vote against the draft.

Head of the Orinats Yerkir faction Heghine Bisharyan said they would vote against the bill because of “lack of progress and expectations for the citizens of the republic.”

The Republican Party and the Armenian revolutionary Federation backed the bill.

The State Budget 2017 envisages revenues amounting to 1 trillion 210 billion AMD. The expenditures will be maintained at the level of around 1 trillion 360 billion AMD. The budget deficit will make approximately 150 billion 150 million AMD.