12:20, 7 January, 2022
YEREVAN, JANUARY 7, ARMENPRESS. Armenia and the United States are celebrating today the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.
“Since 1992, Armenia and United States have developed a strong partnership anchored on common values of democracy, respect for human rights and rule of law”, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Twitter, congratulating both countries on this occasion.
13:32, 7 January, 2022
YEREVAN, JANUARY 7, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan held a telephone conversation with President of Russia Vladimir Putin, the PM’s Office said.
The two leaders exchanged congratulations on Christmas.
The Armenian PM and the Russian President discussed the current situation in Kazakhstan, as well as the process of joint steps within the CSTO.
16:34, 7 January, 2022
YEREVAN, JANUARY 7, ARMENPRESS. Russian military planes are transporting Armenian peacekeepers to Kazakhstan from Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport, the Russian defense ministry reports.
“The transportation of servicemen of the Armenian Armed Forces to Kazakhstan is being carried out by the Russian Il-76 military aircrafts. Three Il-76 planes have already departed from the Zvartnots airport to Kazakhstan”, the Russian defense ministry’s statement says.
Earlier today the Armenian defense ministry reported that 100 Armenian peacekeepers will be sent to Kazakhstan as part of the CSTO peacekeeping mission. The peacekeepers will protect strategic facilities in Kazakhstan.
Armenia “taking all possible measures” to assist Sevan Nisanyan who faces potential deportation from Greece
10:12, 3 January, 2022
YEREVAN, JANUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. The Embassy of Armenia in Greece says it is aware of the process around Sevan Nisanyan, the prominent Istanbul-Armenian scholar and writer who is a citizen of Armenia, and is taking all possible measures to resolve the matter.
The writer was living under a temporary permit in Greece after fleeing a Turkish prison in 2017.
The 66-year-old is now facing deportation because his residency permit was not renewed and he was placed into custody in Samos, his wife said.
“Greece is about to make a decision to deport Armenian citizen Sevan Nishanyan to Turkey.” Nisanyan’s wife Ira Tzourou said on social media.
A Samos court on Jan. 3 is to decide whether he will be deported to Turkey or Armenia, she said.
Nisanyan had been jailed in Turkey in 2014 on charges of illegal construction, a case he claims was punishment for his outspoken views about restrictions on freedom of _expression_ in the country.
14:53,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 30, ARMENPRESS. There are numerous programs in terms of upcoming investments both from the side of Polish businessmen in Armenia and from Armenian businessmen in Poland, the Ambassador of Poland to Armenia Pawel Cieplak said at a press conference in Yerevan’s Media Center.
Asked about potential Polish investments in Armenia, Ambassador Cieplak said he hopes that an investment program in the banking system will soon be implemented, and that business ties between Armenia and Poland will be strengthened after the Armenia-Poland inter-governmental commission meetings.
Cieplak said the business environment in Armenia became more favorable after the 2018 revolution.
“Armenian investors are also making steps for investing in Poland. At the current moment we have information on numerous projects but as long as contracts aren’t signed I can’t reveal details,” the Ambassador said.
Ambassador Cieplak says the limited trade turnover between Armenia and Poland – which doesn’t surpass 70 million dollars annually – is due to the fact that exports are done through a mediating country, namely Bulgaria.
Overall, he described the Armenia-Poland relations as being “based on traditional friendship”.
The COVID-19 pandemic cancelled many planned bilateral visits and joint projects, but the ambassador is hopeful that in 2022 the two countries will return to normal.
He mentioned the visit of Armenian President of the Constitutional Court Arman Dilanyan and two justices to Poland which took place in 2021.
The ambassador said that Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Zbigniew Rau is expected to visit Armenia in the first quarter of 2022 after assuming the OSCE chairmanship.
Inter-parliamentary visits and meetings are also planned.
Ambassador Cieplak thanked Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan for the formation of the Armenia-Poland parliamentary friendship groups in the parliaments of the two countries. He said he hopes that the group will also pay a visit to Poland.
Cooperation between the foreign ministries continues as well, and Poland is hopeful that political consultations at the level of deputy ministers will be held in Yerevan in 2022.
The Ambassador said they also want to intensify economic cooperation and hope that meetings will be held between the Armenia-Poland Intergovernmental commissions for economic affairs.
In Armenia, it is estimated that less than a quarter of residents had gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 as of mid-December, even as the country has drawn vaccine tourists.
The numbers are not nearly as stark in Glendale and Los Angeles neighborhoods such as Little Armenia, Thai Town and Sunland-Tujunga — areas that are hubs for one of the biggest populations of Armenians outside Armenia.
But they have lagged behind the Los Angeles County average, troubling some community leaders and physicians who fear that enduring distrust of government — stemming from genocide, upheaval and a precarious history in other countries — has made it harder to sway some Armenian Americans to get the shots.
For immigrants from the former Soviet Union, “there wasn’t any trust or credibility toward government,” said Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian (D-North Hollywood). Other Armenians who came from countries including Iran, Lebanon and Syria, he said, had faced “civil wars, internal strife, fear of retribution.”
All of that has fostered “a lot of concern towards just blanketly accepting what government is telling them,” Nazarian said.
It is unclear whether vaccine hesitancy or refusal is more pronounced among Armenian Americans than any other group in L.A. County, since public health officials do not track them as a group. But Nazarian called attention to the numbers in areas like Little Armenia, where only 56.6% of eligible residents were fully vaccinated as of mid-December, compared with 70% countywide.
In Glendale, where more than a third of residents are estimated to be of Armenian descent, the vaccination rate was 62.1%
Vic Keossian said that in Glendale parks, she has heard elderly men playing chess repeat the same doubts that have dogged public health outreach all over the county. “They have all this distrust in the vaccine,” Keossian said.
And false claims about the shots causing infertility have had a particular resonance in her community, she said, because of the trauma reverberating through its history.
“Armenians just have a different connection, I think, to fertility after going through genocide,” said Keossian, who works for the Armenian Relief Society Western USA as program supervisor for a county COVID-19 community equity fund. “It’s something that’s really ingrained in us.”
Vaccination rates have been extremely low in Armenia itself. In early November, only 12% of adults there were fully vaccinated against COVID, according to a presentation by the country’s health ministry. The numbers have ticked upsignificantly since then, reaching an estimated 32% of Armenian adults as of mid-December, but have remained lower than in neighboring countries, according to statistics tracked by Our World in Data.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Armenians had lower levels of confidence in vaccines than most of the European region, according to a study published in the Lancet. Armenian American Medical Society board member Vicken Sepilian said that in Armenia, such attitudes had been exacerbated by problems with the AstraZeneca vaccine rollout.
For people who rely heavily on news and social media from Armenia, “all of this has trickled down to our Armenian communities here,” Sepilian said.
In the U.S., “you’re seeing this among the people who have the most direct links to Armenia,” said Armine Lulejian, a clinical assistant professor of population and public health sciences at Keck School of Medicine of USC.Among Armenian Americans who have emigrated from Armenia, “they have this backlash against anything ‘Big Brother’-ly since the collapse of the Soviet Union. If the government is saying it, they’re against it.”
Eric Hacopian, a political consultant for L.A. candidates who is currently residing in Armenia, also faulted “a feeder loop of misinformation” that can be especially potent among immigrants coming from the former Soviet Union or much of the Middle East who see little credibility in state authorities or the media.
“Social media keeps everyone in touch with their home countries,” Hacopian said. “They’ll keep in touch with the good, and they’ll keep in touch with the bad.”
Some believe that the devastation from the war last year between Armenia and Azerbaijan is also at play. For many Armenian Americans, “I feel like COVID took a back seat because of what the people went through,” said Talar Aintablian, director of operations for the social services division of the Armenian Relief Society of Western USA.
In Glendale, the vaccination numbers have notably lagged among seniors, with 75.4% being fully vaccinated as of mid-December, compared with 88% of seniors across the county.
Glendale city officials said they have worked with the county to set up vaccination clinics at trusted sites including St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church and recorded videos on the COVID-19 vaccines with physicians known to the Armenian community.
Among them is Haig Aintablian, a UCLA emergency medicine doctor who has gotten vaccinated publicly and spoken on Armenian-language television about it. The physician said he is blunt about the suffering and death he has seen from the virus.
“More needs to come from Armenians that have seen COVID,” he said. But Armenian American residents who have suffered from the virus sometimes fear talking about the issue, he said, “because it’ll come off as vaccine pressure.”
The Glendale public library has also hosted online trainings for people to become “vaccine influencers,” but only one person attended the Armenian-language training and disappeared at the end without asking any questions, said Evelyn Aghekian, a library assistant who ran the presentation.
Aghekian said that when she sat with Armenian-language flyers for the event outside the Glendale Galleria, some people welcomed the outreach, but for others, “they come, they pick up the paper, they look at me, shake their head and walk away.”
“But they took the paper,” she added.
In November, Nazarian helped host an online event on YouTube featuring Armenian American physicians talking about the COVID-19 vaccines. The trio of doctors countered common misinformation about the shots and talked about why vaccines are still recommended for people who have previously been infected with COVID.
During the live event, some viewers accused Nazarian and the doctors of being traitors. One person commented in the online chat that they were “hiding the truth from your own community,” adding an Armenian term that roughly translates to “backstabbers.”
At one point, Nazarian asked the panelists to respond to a statement by one commenter about the vaccines causing cancer. Dr. Jack Der-Sarkissian, a family medicine doctor with Kaiser Permanente, replied, “I’m not sure where the basis of that concern would be.”
He explained that cancer is a form of damage to DNA and reiterated that the COVID vaccines do not alter recipients’ DNA. Still, Der-Sarkissian said, “I would never dismiss a concern. I think that’s what science is.”
Der-Sarkissian said the worries he has heard from Armenian American patients aren’t radically different than others, but he has been surprised that vaccine hesitancy “seems to have united the community in ways that I had not anticipated.”
The doctor said the reaction seemed to be shaped by the recent war, which he described as a once-in-a-generation loss and experience of perceived abandonment that “deeply impacted not just people in Armenia but the people here in Los Angeles.”
Nazarian also pointed to grief and trauma from the war.
“You had the world stay completely silent as this small little country was fending for itself,” he said. For a community that waited decades for a sitting U.S. president to acknowledge the Armenian genocide, that sense of international indifference “just leant itself to further distrust.”
George Lousparian, a construction contractor who lives in Sunland-Tujunga, said that many people in his culture distrust government from the experiences that they or their families have had in Turkey, Iran or under Soviet regimes. But he said his own concerns about the vaccines stem from shifting messages from U.S. government officials.
He cited changing guidance early in the pandemic about masks, as well as emerging information about waning protection from the vaccine and the need for booster shots. “With so many inconsistencies, how do I trust it?” he asked. “My skepticism is not because of being Armenian or not. I make decisions based on what data is out there.”
L.A. County Public Health officials said that since May, more than a dozen agencies partnering with the county had done outreach to more than 8,300 Armenian American residents about the vaccines. The Armenian American Medical Society teamed up with Glendale and the county to provide health information at vaccination clinics outside the Glendale Galleria.
The Armenian Relief Society of Western USA has also hosted vaccination clinics at its Glendale headquarters, sent Armenian-speaking volunteers to vaccination clinics, translated public health information into Armenian, and canvassed parks and other gathering places in Glendale ZIP Codes with especially low vaccination rates.
“Sometimes people are willing to hear what we have to say,” said Suzy Petrossian, project coordinator with ARS Western USA. “And other times we get a lot of, ‘No, we don’t want it, this is all made up.’”
Some simply say “Kuh mtatzem” — or “I’ll think about it.” Case manager Ani Tangyan lets them know she’ll be there if they ever want help getting the shots.
“After one month, two months, they are coming” back, Tangyan said, and they ask, “Where is that girl?”
Times staff writer Hamlet Nalbandyan contributed to this report.
The Armenia-Azerbaijan border
Moscow, once again, sought to assert its firm grip on regional developments, saying that issues discussed between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan last week during meetings in Brussels emanated from agreements reached at a meeting in Sochi last month that was mediated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev met in Brussels last week in meetings first mediated by the President of the European Council Charles Michel and later presided over by President Emanuel Macron of France. Following these talks, Armenia and Azerbaijan announced their readiness to reactivate the old Soviet railway links that run through Armenia, Nakhichevan, Iran, Azerbaijan to Moscow.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Friday made to drive home what she said were discussion that took place in Sochi when Pashinyan, Aliyev and Putin met there on November 26.
“Substantive discussions are continuing by the trilateral working group co-chaired by the deputy prime ministers of the three countries,” said Zakharova referencing a working group established to make proposals on the opening of transit routes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, following an agreement signed in Moscow on January 11.
“I would also like to remind that within the framework of this mechanism, a wide range of issues is being discussed on the unblocking transport and economic ties in the South Caucasus—including the restoration of both railway and transport links in the region. As agreed by the heads of state, we are working toward the immediate launch of specific transport projects,” explained Zakharova, once again, stressing Russia’s role in the process.
Zakharova also urged the sides to make statements that clearly invoke what she called the “positive aspects” of the discussions and “not to make problematic issues a focal point” of the effort.
The spokesperson also touched on the future delimitation and demarcation of borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan and stressed that Russia will provide assistance in that realm, commenting on Michel’s earlier statement voicing the EU’s readiness to assist in the process.
Nevertheless, Zakharova said, Russia welcomes “international efforts aimed at the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. At the same time, it is very important to take into account the regional realities, the agreement between Yerevan and Baku, as well as the added value from it. For our part, we will continue to provide all necessary assistance—including advisory—to the parties.”
Illustration by Getty Images.
Africa has been occupying a significant place in Turkish foreign policy since the rise of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) to power in 2002. This policy officially started in 2003 when the Turkish government announced its new strategy toward Africa in a document called “Strategy for Enhancing Economic Relations with Africa.”
As the growing interest in Africa continued, the government announced 2005 as the Year of Africa. The enhanced cooperation between Turkey and the continent further strengthened following the first and second Turkey-Africa summits that took place in 2008 and 2014 in Istanbul and Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, respectively. As the continuation of these initiatives, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan invited African leaders to the third summit which took place recently in Istanbul with the participation of 16 African heads of state and tens of other ministers and delegates.
Apart from this fruitful institutional cooperation, Turkey’s bilateral engagements with its African partners have also been developing at a significant pace. This has been the case when it comes to Turkey’s strengthening relations with countries such as Somalia, Libya, Algeria and Ethiopia to name but a few. Turkey’s active engagement policy with Africa is mostly related to Ankara’s new foreign policy understanding. During the past few years, the Turkish leadership has realized the importance of diversification of foreign policy engagements. As a result, Ankara actively engaged with African states to set up new partnerships in diplomacy, economy and military activities.
On the other hand, the African countries have also welcomed Turkey’s recent push for increasing engagement with the continent. The main motivation for the African leaders to welcome Turkey’s new initiatives in Africa was the unique approach that Ankara had toward the continent.
While trying to advance its interests, Turkey has also aimed to contribute to the sustainable development goals of African countries. This understanding of equal partnership and the win-win approach has been a new dynamic for the countries in Africa that have historically suffered from colonial powers such as France and Britain. In addition to that, Turkey has supported African countries to overcome the destructive legacies of the colonial past by strengthening them with financial and military capabilities as well as democratic values. That means partnership with Turkey is an asset for both Turkey and regional countries, especially in this climate of emerging African economies.
Therefore, interaction is built in two ways. While Turkey has redesigned its policy toward Africa, the countries of the continent have largely welcomed Turkey’s new initiatives. It should be noted that the increasing trade volume and military engagements in recent years are a result of the mutual trust and relationship between Turkey and African countries based on solid foundations. While African nations experience difficulties in finding reliable global partners, they easily remedy this by enhancing cooperation with Turkey as Ankara offers African actors various political, economic and military tools to meet their development goals as well as security needs.
The economy is the key element in Turkish-African cooperation. While Ankara’s main economic partners are in the North Africa region, Turkish export and investments are increasingly spreading all over the continent, including the West, East and sub-Saharan Africa.
First of all, with its win-win approach, Turkey has become a strong economic and political alternative to traditional powers. In this sense, Turkey has taken decisive steps and developed crucial projects not only in the natural resources and precious metals sectors but also in the construction, industry and service sectors throughout the continent, including West Africa.
In addition, Turkey’s trade volume in the eastern part of the continent has been unequivocally increasing. At this point, Turkey has become a strong competitor against China and the United States, especially in Horn of Africa countries such as Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. Adopting a more comprehensive and development-oriented economic policy, Turkey’s trade volume with Sudan and Somalia, against the aggressive expansionist economic policies followed by China within the scope of the “Belt and Road” project, has reached $500 million (TL 6.2 billion) and $300 million, respectively. In addition to these countries, Turkey’s economic relations with Ethiopia, whose economy is one of the largest in the continent, gained momentum and reached a trading volume of $1 billion by 2021.
Given these increasing economic activities, as of 2021, Turkey’s trade volume with Africa has reached more than $20 billion. Within this framework, considering the last 10 years’ economic indicators, the trade volume that has scaled up in Africa has progressed gradually and the most important share comes from France. Therefore, these activities of Turkey have met with strong opposition by some of the traditional actors of the continent, particularly France. Paris has considered Ankara’s increasing engagement in this part of the continent as an alternative to its colonial influence in the region.
Another important dynamic of Turkey-Africa relations is military cooperation. Due to continuing political instability and security threats in various parts of the continent, many of the African governments resort to military means to find solutions to their related concerns. As there are limited providers of such security needs, there is always a chance for new players to engage in terms of military cooperation.
It is increasingly observed that one of the actors in this regard is Turkey. These engagements range from opening a military base in Somalia or supporting a legitimate actor to fight against military threats such as the one in Libya. In addition to such direct engagements, there are other formulas that Turkish-African military cooperation takes place such as assisting armies with professional expertise, providing military equipment, and selling high-tech defense capabilities such as drones and missiles.
During the past years, there have been unconfirmed reports of various drone sales or potential commercial activities in this regard between Turkey and some African countries. Such reports have the possibility to be true given that Turkish drones have become a strategic asset for Turkish defense exports in recent times. While Turkish-made drones made a significant contribution to the country’s military engagements in Libya, Syria and Iraq, they were also a game-changer in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The drones were also the most active instrument of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in Ankara’s fight against terrorist groups such as the PKK and its Syrian branches.
In light of this background, there is a high possibility that some African countries may have asked Turkey to provide them with drones. It is important to note here that there is an increasing need for such military capabilities in Africa, particularly for the countries that have been subjected to domestic and regional armed threats. Therefore, Turkey, like other suppliers of military hardware, including the U.S., France, Russia, China and Iran, can be considered as a natural supplier of defense equipment, including armed drones.
While there have been unconfirmed reports of such exports from Turkey to African countries, there is also criticism toward Turkey in this regard. Some international commentators claim that Turkish-made drones have been violating human rights in some of the battlefields and therefore Turkey has the responsibility for such actions. It should be underlined that Turkish drone exports would only be possible if the deal is made with a legitimate government of a state who has serious concerns or threats from an armed group. Therefore, following the transfer of such military hardware, the responsibility of the results of using that material would have also been transferred to that government who use them. Therefore, even if there are human rights violations, it cannot be claimed that Turkey has responsibility for such actions. Additionally, such defense sales are no different from a common practice of defense exports like those made by the U.S., Russia and France to many African countries.
In conclusion, it is clear that the partnerships Turkey has established with many African countries in the field of defense, such as in the case of Libya and Somalia, make significant contributions to the sustainability of peace in the continent. This situation is a positive reference factor for other African countries. This reference element also helps to deepen the partnership between Turkey and African countries.
Armed with battle-tested drones, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been deepening defence ties with African countries ahead of a major gathering of the continent’s leaders in Istanbul.
The two-day Turkey-Africa partnership summit starting Friday comes fast on the heels of a top-level business forum in October that focused on investment and trade.
The next phase of this fast-blossoming relationship is security, experts say, with a host of African leaders looking to buy up military hardware at cheaper prices and with fewer strings attached.
Leaders and top ministers from 39 countries – including 13 presidents – have confirmed attendance, with Erdoğan set to make a speech on Saturday.
Ankara already has a military base in Somalia, and Morocco and Tunisia reportedly took their first delivery of Turkish combat drones in September.
Angola became the latest to express an interest in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) during Erdoğan’s first visit to the southern African country in October.
Turkey in August also signed a military cooperation pledge with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has been embroiled in a war with Tigrayan rebels for the past year.
“The most important sector is the defense sector because this is a new asset. Turkey has pushed this sector a lot, especially drones,” Federico Donelli, an international relations researcher at the University of Genoa, told AFP.
Russia has been the dominant player on the African arms market, accounting for 49 percent of the continent’s imports between 2015 and 2019, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
But interest in Turkish weaponry is peaking.
The TB2 Bayraktar model is in high demand after it was credited with swinging the fate of conflicts in Libya and the occupied of Nagorno-Karabakh in the past few years.
The drones are made by the private Baykar company, run by one of Erdoğan’s sons-in-law.
“Everywhere I go in Africa, everyone asks about UAVs,” Erdoğan boasted after a visit to Angola, Nigeria and Togo in October.
Turkish defense and aviation exports to Ethiopia rose to $94.6 million between January and November from around $235,000 in the same period last year, according to figures published by the Turkish Exporters Assembly.
Sales to Angola, Chad and Morocco experienced similar jumps.
Turkey’s drones first made international headlines after Ankara signed two deals with the U.N.-recognized Libyan government covering maritime and security in 2019.
It then swarmed the conflict zone with drones, stalling an advance by rebel eastern forces backed by Turkey’s regional rivals and paving the way for a truce.
Turkey cemented its drones’ reputation last year by helping Azerbaijan recapture most of the land it lost to separatist ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh nearly three decades ago.
“Now Turkey with drones has more cards to play when they have to bargain with other countries,” researcher Donelli said.
“This is a very good bargaining chip for Turkey.”
The head of Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board – the NGO that hosted the October forum in Istanbul – insisted the growing relationship was not just about weapons.
“We care about the defense sector and our relations with Africa,” the board’s head Nail Olpak told AFP.
“But I would like to emphasize that if we see the defense sector only as weapons, rockets, guns, tanks and rifles, it would be wrong.”
He highlighted Turkish mine-clearing vehicles in Togo, which qualify as defense industry sales.
Donelli agreed, referring to Togo’s plans to improve its army with the support of Turkey through training and armored vehicles, weapons and other kinds of equipment.
Turkey has reportedly set up a web of 37 military offices across Africa in all, in line with Erdoğan’s affirmed goal of tripling the annual trade volume with the continent to $75 billion in the coming years.
U.S. soldiers, with a Chinook helicopter in the background, return to their base after attending a local tribal council in Zabul province, south of Afghanistan June 30, 2005. (Reuters File Photo)
No United States military personnel will be held accountable for the August drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians, including seven children, according to a statement released by Pentagon on Monday.
An earlier investigation by the Air Force inspector general said the Aug. 29 strike was caused by execution errors, interpreting information that supported certain viewpoints, and communication breakdowns. The military previously called the strike a “tragic mistake.”
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that senior commanders had made a number of recommendations to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about the incident, none of which included any accountability measures for specific personnel.
Austin accepted the recommendations, Kirby said.
“I do not anticipate there being issues of personal accountability to be had,” he added.
Kirby noted the high level of the threat facing U.S. forces following a deadly bombing outside the Kabul airport that killed 13 troops, context that he said was important.
“In this case, in the context of this particular strike … there was not a strong enough case to be made for personal accountability.”
While the Pentagon has said it is working to offer condolence payments and relocation to the family of Afghans killed in the strike, it is still in talks with an aid organization that employed one of the victims.