Author: Arsine Chaltikian

Donald Trump on Thursday reached the number of delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination for president, completing an unlikely rise that has upended the political landscape and sets the stage for a bitter fall campaign, the Associated Press reports.

Trump was put over the top in the Associated Press delegate count by a small number of the party’s unbound delegates who told the AP they would support him at the convention. Among them is Oklahoma GOP chairwoman Pam Pollard.

“I think he has touched a part of our electorate that doesn’t like where our country is,” Pollard said. “I have no problem supporting Mr. Trump.”

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president. Trump has reached 1,238. With 303 delegates at stake in five state primaries on June 7, Trump will easily pad his total, avoiding a contested convention in Cleveland in July.

 

– A proposed resolution calling on the German government to recognize the early 20th-century Ottoman Empire’s violence against the Armenians as genocide is important, as it may put an end to Turkey’s policy of denial, lawmaker from Germany’s Left Party Sevim Dagdelen told Sputnik Turkey.

On Monday, German lawmakers proposed the resolution, condemning the mass killings of Armenians ordered by the Ottoman government during World War I as genocide, for a parliamentary vote.

“I believe that this resolution is very important, because it can play a major role in the rejection of Turkey’s Genocide denial policy,” Dagdelen said in the interview.

According to the lawmaker, the parliamentary vote, which is set to be held on June 2, will be an important step in preparing the grounds for a reconciliation between the Armenians and the Turks and in establishing a dialogue between them.

“Thus Germany can do something that Turkey failed to implement,” she added.

The lawmaker said that she believes the resolution will be adopted by the parliament. According to Dagdelen, the June parliamentary vote will not result in serious tensions between Turkey and Germany.

Twice-postponed Armenian Genocide draft will be brought to Bundestag’s agenda on June 2. Green Party member and Vice President of the Bundestag Claudia Roth spoke to . Reminding that Ambassador of Turkey to Germany Hüseyin Avni Karslıoğlu warned Bundestag about the draft, Roth said, “We don’t accept it. I hope the groups in the parliament won’t obey Turkey once again and the draft will be accepted as planned.”

With “Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan” video clip and Erdoğan’s lawsuit against comedian Böhmermann, freedom of expression and oppression on press in Turkey came to the fore in German public agenda. Though EU countries, especially Chancellor Merkel, seemingly evaded the responsibility by signing the Readmission Agreement with Turkey, the German public opinion is divided over this issue. While the ruling coalition followers and right-wing support the agreement, liberals and and left-wing criticize it because it is done at the cost of the lives of the refugees and EU connives at the violation of rights in Turkey. In the midst of these discussions, Berlin-based national newspaper Die Tageszeitung issued a special supplement focusing on freedom of press in Turkey on May 3 World Press Freedom Day. In order to prepare this issue, which includes articles from Turkish journalists and published in Turkish-German for the first time in German press history, 2 editors from Turkey, including me, was invited. This 16-paged supplement was published with “Uncensored” title and on the day it was published, a panel discussion on freedom of press in Turkey was held. Die Welt Turkey representative Deniz Yücel and the Vice President of the Bundestag Claudia Roth gave speeches at the session.

It is no coincidence that Green Party member and Vice President of the Bundestag Claudia Roth attended this session. Working for Turkey’s EU membership since 1989, Roth was one of the Bundestag members who brought the grave human rights violations in Turkey during ’90s to the parliamentary agenda. In 2013, during Gezi Park protests, she was subjected to police brutality. During the recent years, she became the leading critics of Turkey’s governmental policies.

We spoke to Claudia Roth about Armenian Genocide draft, Germany’s responsibility in the genocide and the meaning of the Readmission Agreement in terms of German-Turkish relations.

It is announced that the draft concerning the Armenian Genocide will be brought to the parliamentary agenda on June 2. Do you think that it will be accepted this time?

It’s about time. The draft hasn’t been brought to the agenda sooner because of Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU); it is not our fault. We wanted it to be accepted last year, on the centennial of the genocide. On the anniversary of the genocide, President Joachim Gauck and the President of Bundestag Norbert Lammert used the word “genocide”. We said that we will prepare a draft that all parliamentary groups would accept. However, the other groups didn’t do this, they tried to postpone it. And now, CDU leader promised that a common draft will be brought to the agenda on June 2. On the other hand, we saw on the newspapers that Turkey Ambassador to Germany warned our parliament about this draft. He said, “Calling it genocide is not under the authority of a foreign parliament.” I hope the groups in the parliament won’t obey Turkey once again and the draft will be accepted as planned.

What do you think about this warning?

This attitude is incomprehensible for me. An ambassador warns Bundestag openly. We don’t accept it. No embassy and no government can threaten us. What we discuss or how we resolve an issue is at our disposal. I hope CDU and SPD will keep their promise, vote for the draft and define what happened in 1915. And this definition can be nothing but genocide. We are already late; we should have accepted it last year. However, SPD thought that it might constitute an obstacle to the Readmission Agreement. It is impossible to postpone it further.

What will Bundestag’s recognition of the genocide mean?

Recognition will pave the way for discussing our responsibility, because Germany is also responsible for what happened. German Monarchy was an ally of Turkey; they didn’t do anything for preventing the genocide, though they knew everything about it. We have to confront our past.

Germany’s role in the genocide has came to be discussed more and more both in Turkey and Germany. Is this also a topic of public discussions?

Especially on the centennial, this issue was intensely discussed. However, it started long before the centennial. I remember that Hrant Dink came to Germany and attended some panel discussions about 10 years ago. I personally discussed this issue with him. We were talking about whether it is necessary to insist on defining the events as genocide. He said that opening the issue up for discussion is more important. However, 10 years passed and Hrant Dink was murdered. Today, I think that calling it genocide is also our responsibility to Hrant Dink. So, we will discuss this issue and say that what happened is genocide. And there is another reason that makes it so important: the Armenian Genocide is accepted as the first genocide in 20^th century, but Germany is responsible for another genocide, which was committed 11 years before the Armenian Genocide. The country that is known as Namibia today was a colony called German South-West Africa. And in1904-1907, Germany carried out a genocide against indigenous Herero and Nama people. We think that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide will enable the discussion of Herero genocide and Germany will also accept its responsibility for it too. As a result of our efforts, German Ministry of Foreign Affairs recognized the Herero Genocide. However, this is not enough, because nothing has been done for reconciliation yet.

Especially in the recent period, human rights violations in Turkey is begun to be discussed in Germany. On the other hand, there are criticisms against EU countries on the ground that they connive at what is happening in Turkey because of the refugee agreement. As a politician, do you think that German Parliament should criticize itself?

Yes, a self-criticism is necessary. When Erdoğan came to power at first, left-wing and liberals in Turkey was supporting him. There was a peace process and we thought that a new period is about to start in Turkey. However, on this point, the self-criticism should be about the EU membership process of Turkey. We, as EU and Germany, haven’t made enough effort for Turkey’s full membership. Such an effort would have led to democratic reforms. We didn’t insist on this process and find the membership convincing and this was a huge mistake in terms of the relations with Turkey. Offering “privileged partnership” instead of full membership doesn’t mean anything. At the end of this process, Turkey became more alienated from the idea of EU membership. Preventing Turkey’s full membership but signing an agreement with it for protecting the “Europe castle” is nothing but hypocrisy. What was our contribution to the escalation of autocracy in Turkey? Did we sell out the democrats, journalists and opponents in Turkey by signing this agreement? Did we sell out democracy? Did we connive at what happened? We should discuss these issues.  

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, wife of Hollywood actor George Clooney, is representing award-winning Azerbaijan reporter Khadija Ismayilova at the European Court of Human Rights.

President Serzh Sargsyan, who is participating at the Second Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide convened at the K. Demirjian Sport and Concert Compound, during the break between the sessions conversed with the participants of the Forum, exchanged views with the delegates, and presented Armenia’s views regarding a number of issues.

Speaking about the difficulties posed by the geographical location of our country, President Sargsyan said in particular, “It is true that two out of Armenia’s four neighbors are conducted hostile policy toward our country. Nevertheless, since independence we have adopted a multi-vector policy trying to develop relations with all our neighbors. Even with Turkey, we were the initiators of reestablishing the relations without preconditions. It was an initiative which revealed to the world why the Armenian-Turkish is closed, who is setting preconditions and why the Turkish-Azeri “one nation- two states” formula is a real factor. Those who until now have not yet comprehended the political essence of that formula, in their calculations have missed an important element. We are a peaceful nation. We hate no one and do not build our relations on animosity or hatred toward anyone. Our people don’t like to fight but we do it when we are forced to. We are forced to fight for one simple reason: we want to live on our own land and we want to be free.”

The President spoke also about Russia’s role in the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh issue. “Yesterday I received Minister of Foreign Affairs Lavrov, who was on a visit in Yerevan. I presented to him our position regarding the situation which has been established after the large-scale offensive unleashed by Azerbaijan. Russia as the OSCE Minsk Group member state is actively involved in the Nagorno Karabakh peace process. For years, we were a responsible member of that process, were trying to find mutually acceptable solutions, were trying to be constructive. Obviously, the blunt violation by Azerbaijan of the 1994 Ceasefire Agreement has thrown the peace process far back. We were convinced that the problem could be solved through exclusively peaceful means, however today the situation is different. Ceasefire and supporting agreements have been violated, five statements of the Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair states – US, France, and Russia – were violated, bloodchilling war crimes were committed, and now we are telling everyone – point your finger to the aggressor, expose the aggressor so that lessons are learned, so that we can move forward,” said President Serzh Sargsyan.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian will visit Moscow on April 8 to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s press service announced Wednesday.

“Nalbandian will leave for Moscow on April 8 where a meeting is planned with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov,” the press service said.

The same day the Armenian Foreign Minister will participate in the sitting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers.

For the eighth time in a row Armenia will observe the Earth Hour on Saturday, March 19. Capital Yerevan, the cities of Abovyan, Armavir, Artashat, Dilijan, Echmiadzin, Gavar, Goris, Hrazdan and Vanadzor, will join the worldwide grassroots movement uniting people to protect the planet organized by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Millions of people across the globe will turn off their lights for 60 minutes on Saturday night starting at 8:30pm local time in a symbolic show of support for “Earth Hour” campaign against climate change. The major monuments will also go dark for an hour.

The event first took place in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights. Following Sydney’s lead, many other cities around the world adopted the event in 2008.

Many of the world’s most iconic attractions, including Sydney Opera House, the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower will take part.

Last year more than 150 countries participated in the event which saw some of the world’s most iconic landmarks dim, and this year the movement has spread to Palestine, Tunisia, Suriname and Rwanda.

 

Garo Paylan, a member of Parliament of Armenian descent who belongs to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), gave a speech and showed some photos in the Turkish general assembly on Thursday, Today’s Zaman reports.

The photos showed some of the graffiti that had been daubed on the ruined walls of southeastern villages during the recent curfews. The words “Armenian bastards” could be clearly seen on the photos and the situation has triggered a serious racism debate in Turkey.

Paylan first showed the photos and then stated that the situation is in itself a crime. He said this crime was committed not only by the security forces but also by the prime minister.

Last week Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was in Bingol and said “the Armenian gangs cooperated with the Russians during World War I”.

Paylan wisely asked in Parliament whether it would be fair for him to say “Turkish gangs” about the Turks and Kurds who sometimes join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)? Lastly, he asked “what kind of racism is it?”, drawing a thunderous commotion in Parliament from Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputies.

The Azerbaijani side used weapons of different caliber as it fired more 1,200 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions over the weekend, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.

Front divisions of the NKR Defense Army have mostly refrained from retaliatory actions and have confidently carried out their military duty.

On February 13, in Munich Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with Victoria Nuland, the US Assistant Secretary of State.

The sides expressed satisfaction with the high-level of bilateral relations, attached importance to the steps undertaken in recent years towards the consolidation of friendly partnership between Armenia and the United States. Edward Nalbandian and Victoria Nuland exchanged views on the ways of further development of cooperation in various fields.

The Foreign Minister of Armenia and the US Assistant Secretary of State touched upon pressing regional and international issues

Edward Nalbandian and Victoria Nuland discussed the process of settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.