Author: Badalian Vardan

RUSSIA TO HOST TALKS WITH LEADERS OF ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN

EuroNews
Aug 7 2014

06/08 19:24 CET

Leaders of arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan are expected to meet for
talks hosted by Russia as fears grow that military clashes may lead
to a resumption of one of the bloodiest post-Soviet wars.

The disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh has seen fierce fighting
since last week between Azeri government forces and ethnic Armenian
separatists.

It is described as the worst flare-up of violence in years for the
breakaway enclave that lies within Azerbaijan but has a majority
Armenian population.

Armenian snipers targeted two children, one aged 9 and the other 14.

Both children were taken to hospital for treatment.

The breakaway enclave said one of its men was killed by a soldier
from the Azeri side. That raises the number killed killed on both
sides to at least eighteen.

Azerbaijan’s relations with Armenia remain severely strained.

Nagorno-Karabakh has run its own affairs, backed by Armenia, since
a war two decades ago killed around 30,000 people.

Despite a 1994 ceasefire, international mediation has failed to secure
a permanent settlement.

AZERBAIJAN’S PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV THREATENS WAR WITH ARMENIA IN TWITTER RANT

Yahoo News
Aug 8 2014

By Gianluca Mezzofiore | IB Times

The president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has threatened to resume
war against the Armenian “barbarians and vandals” over the disputed
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh through a long Twitter rant.

The worst clashes in years in the 4,400-km sq of disputed territory
located within Azerbaijan’s current borders left at least 15 soldiers
dead in recent days.

The neighbouring countries fought a full-fledged war over the enclave
after the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s that caused at least
30,000 deaths over six years. A ceasefire brokered by Russia in 1994
put an end to hostilities but international attempts to revive the
peace process have failed since then.

Nagorno-Karabakh has maintained de facto autonomy. Azerbaijan keeps
claiming the land as its own, and considers it an occupied territory,
stressing that the self-declared government lacks international
recognition.

Employing his utmost belligerent rhetoric, Aliyev declared that “just
as we have beaten the Armenians on the political and economic fronts,
we are able to defeat them on the battlefield”.

Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart, president Serzh Sargsyan,
are due to meet in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi to discuss
a settlement.

Russia said on its website: “We see the events of recent days as a
serious violation of agreements on a ceasefire and declared intentions
to achieve a regulation through political means.

“We take the position that any further escalation is unacceptable.”

The US expressed “concern” about the escalation of violence and
remarked that the ceasefire “needs to be respected”.

TURKISH PRIME MINISTER DENIES “UGLY” ACCUSATIONS OF ARMENIAN BLOOD, SAYS HE IS “PUREBRED TURK”

FrontPage Magazine
Aug 7 2014

August 7, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield 21 Comments

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center,
is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a
book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.

Prime Minister Erdogan is the murderous ruler of Turkey who looks a
lot like Hitler, acts a lot like Hitler and talks a lot like Hitler…

but keeps accusing Israel of being worse than Hitler.

Go figure.

Anyway the mad Mullah of Turkey, whose top party man just made
international news by warning women not to laugh, wants everyone to
know that he has no Armenian blood.

No sir. Erdogan is 100% purebred Turk.

“They have also said a lot of things about me. One of them came and
said I was a Georgian. Then another came up and, I beg your pardon,
called me uglier things, saying I was Armenian,” Erdogan said during
a live interview on Aug. 5, adding that he was a purebred Turk.

The Turkish prime minister has repeated several times during his
campaign that main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader
Kemal Kılıcdaroglu is an Alevi, Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP)
candidate Selahattin DemirtaÃ…~_ is a Zaza-origin Kurd, and the CHP and
other parties’ candidate Ekmeleddin Ä°hsanoglu is “not even a native”
for being born in Egypt, albeit to Turkish parents.

During his speeches, Erdogan has consistently reminded the nation’s
populace that he is a “Sunni.”

Erdogan is purebred something alright, but I doubt it could win the
Westminster dog show. Unless there’s a “Mutt who looks most like
Hitler” category.

The media and foreign officials have a history of ignoring Erdogan’s
racist comments about Armenians. Even when he rubs it right in
their faces.

An Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day Bill has also been put before
the House of Commons and Mr Erdogan has warned Gordon Brown that
relations would suffer if parliament passes it.

“There are currently 170,000 Armenians living in our country. Only
70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we are tolerating the
remaining 100,000,” said Mr Erdogan.

“If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to go back to their
country because they are not my citizens. I don’t have to keep them
in my country.”

And yes, he did it at a press conference with the British Prime
Minister. And the world said nothing.

COMMUNIQUE DU CCAF SUITE AUX PROPOS RACISTES D’ERDOGAN

FRANCE/TURQUIE

Se livrant a une nouvelle provocation, Recep Tayyip Erdogan a
assimile ce jour a une insulte le fait d’avoir ete accuse par ses
rivaux d’avoir des origines armeniennes. Cette declaration illustre
helas la condition des Armeniens de Turquie et le racisme dont ils
continuent a faire l’objet dans ce pays, cent ans après le genocide
de 1915. Loin de lutter contre la politique de haine qui avait
conduit a cette tragedie, les autorites turques continuent jusqu’a
aujourd’hui a en reproduire les mecanismes. L’Etat turc qui s’est
construit sur le cadavre du peuple armenien, l’aneantissement de ses
entites chretiennes et l’oppression des Kurdes ne s’est toujours pas
affranchi de la logique de son crime fondateur. Les propos d’Erdogan,
qui avant de manifester son mepris a l’egard des Armeniens avait nie
leur genocide, ne sont que la resultante de cette situation qui n’a que
trop duree et dont, en tout etat de cause, l’Europe doit se proteger.

Face aux risques d’importation de ce climat de haine, le CCAF appelle
une nouvelle fois la France et les Etats de l’Union europeenne a faire
preuve de courage et de fermete dans leur legislation contre le racisme
et le negationnisme qui constituent les deux volets indissociables
d’une meme ideologie criminelle.

6 août Bureau national du CCAF ( Conseil de coordination des
organisations armeniennes de France)

mercredi 6 août 2014, Ara (c)armenews.com

ALIEV MONTE AU FRONT POUR REMONTER LE MORAL DES TROUPES AZERIES QUI SUBISSENT DES REVERS

AZERBAÏDJAN

Le president azeri Ilham Aliev a inspecte le front afin de remonter
le moral des troupes azeries et de la population civile a la frontière
avec le Haut Karabagh. Selon les medias de Bakou, I. Aliev a rencontre
des habitants et des soldats a Kouzanli localite proche d’Aghdam.

Alors que l’armee azerie subissait a Aghdam un serieux revers,
le president azeri a ose declarer >… Après Kouzanli, Aliev a visite d’autres localites
azeries. Rappelons que selon le ministère armenien de la Defense,
l’Azerbaïdjan a organise plus d’une vingtaine d’operations d’incursion
sur les lignes frontalières tenues par les Armeniens. Toutes ces
tentatives furent des echecs. Au total 7 soldats Armeniens furent
tues et du côte azeri les pertes sont de 8 a 9 fois superieurs…

Krikor Amirzayan

jeudi 7 août 2014, Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

SITUATION TRAGIQUE AU NORD DE L’IRAK, LES ENFANTS MEURENT DE SOIF

Irak

Des djihadistes se sont empares de Qaraqosh, la plus grande ville
chretienne d’Irak près de Mossoul (nord), et des zones alentours
abandonnees dans la nuit par les forces kurdes, ont rapporte ce jeudi
des habitants en fuite et un responsable religieux.

“Je sais maintenant que les villes de Qaraqosh, Tal Kayf, Bartella et
Karamlesh ont ete videes de leurs habitants et sont maintenant sous
le contrôle des insurges”, a declare Mgr Joseph Thomas, archeveque
chaldeen de Kirkouk et Souleimaniyeh.

La prise par les djihadistes de zones du nord de l’Irak où vivaient
une grande partie des chretiens du pays poussait jeudi des dizaines de
milliers de personnes a fuir, ont annonce un archeveque et des temoins.

“C’est une catastrophe, une situation tragique. Nous appelons le
conseil de securite de l’ONU a intervenir immediatement. Des dizaines
de milliers de personnes terrifiees sont chassees de chez elles au
moment où nous parlons, on ne peut pas decrire ce qui se passe”,
a declare Mgr Joseph Thomas.

Reuters et AFP

Voir aussi lien plus bas

jeudi 7 août 2014, Jean Eckian (c)armenews.com

ARMENIA COULD SUE AZERBAIJAN FOR ACTS OF SABOTAGE – EXPERT

11:31 * 07.08.14

Armenia could sue Azerbaijan for its acts of sabotage.

The international law envisages such procedures, but it will not
be effective, David Apinyan, expert for the Arevelk think tank told
Tert.am.

“It is theoretically possible, but the question is what practical
results are going to be. We must be concerned with the result
after all. There is no precedent when, with interested sides, the
international law and court do something,” he said.

In real politics, such things are important, but are not a priority.

And in this context, the interests of Russia, the United States,
European Union, Iran and turkey should be considered.

Armenian News – Tert.am

NKR FM TALKS WITH TRANSDNIESTRIAN COUNTERPART OVER PHONE

12:16 * 07.08.14

On August 6, on the initiative of the Transdniestrian side, Minister
of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Karen Mirzoyan
had a telephone conversation with Deputy Chairman of the Government of
the Transdniestria Moldavian Republic for International Cooperation,
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nina Shtanski.

During the conversation, the sides exchanged views on a number of
issues of mutual interest.

They also touched upon the violations of the ceasefire on the Line of
Contact between the armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan
and measures taken by the NKR to thwart them.

Armenian News – Tert.am

THEY ARE THREATENING FATIH AKIN AND AGOS

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Aug 6 2014

ORHAN KEMAL CENGÝZ
August 06, 2014, Wednesday

The Cihan news agency reported that members of the Turkcu Turancýlar
Derneði (Turkist Turan Association) threatened renowned filmmaker
Fatih Akýn via Twitter after a highly publicized interview he gave
to the Turkish-Armenian Agos weekly.

Akýn has just completed a film on “the journey of an Armenian living
in Mardin, played by Tahir Rahim, who sets out to find his daughter
following a tragedy that befalls him,” Agos reported. As you can
easily guess, this “tragedy” happened to be in 1915.

Akýn’s film, named “The Cut,” has not been released yet. Only the
trailer is available for the time being.

Akýn looked quite confident about the level of maturity of Turkish
society in dealing with past atrocities in the interview he gave to
Agos. In the middle of the interview he said, “I am sure that society
in Turkey, of which I too am a part, is ready for this film.”

However, the Cihan news agency’s above-mentioned report suggests
that at least some parts of Turkish society are not at all ready to
confront some thoughts and narratives that contrast with what they
believe Turkey’s past to have been.

The Turkcu Turancýlar Derneði’s threats against Akýn and Agos are quite
serious and alarming. They said: “Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akýn,
who is affiliated with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK],
is working with the Agos weekly in order to release his latest film
‘The Cut.’ We, the members of the Turkcu Turancýlar Derneði, are
not going to let them bring this so-called genocide story to the big
screen. This film is the first leg of the 2015 Armenian scenario. We
are explicitly threatening the Agos weekly, Armenian fascists and
so-called intellectuals. This film will not be released in Turkey. We
have our eyes on all of you with our white hats.”

“White hats,” as you may recognize, in this message is a reference
to the white beret that the murderer of Hrant Dink wore when shot
Dink in front of the office of the Agos weekly, of which Dink was
the editor-in-chief.

What kind of conclusions can we draw from this story?

Well, my first one is this: We have not witnessed such an open and
unmistakable threat from neo-fascist organizations towards minorities
for a while. This threatening message and the support it has attracted
on social media may be an indication of a change in the atmosphere. We
used to witness such direct threats in 2007 and earlier, before the
Ergenekon trials started. Now that all the suspects have been released
in this case, the atmosphere may start to change again.

The second conclusion, of course, concerns the scandalous level of
insensitivity of prosecutors towards hate speech and its potentially
serious consequences, especially when it targets vulnerable groups
such as Armenians in Turkey. Unsurprisingly, I have not heard of any
prosecutor or police activity about these open threats yet.

Thirdly, connected to the second, is the inability of the Turkish
judiciary to draw lessons from past experience. Unfortunately, Dink
was killed exactly like this in 2007, after being the target of hate
speech for a long time.

It is high time for the Turkish judiciary, police and policy makers
to realize that hate speech in Turkey is a very serious matter. I
urge officials to take these threats very seriously!

RESPONSIBILITY TO THE VICTIMS LIES ON THE MILITARY AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP OF AZERBAIJAN

11:44 06.08.2014

“The armed forces of the Republic of Armenia are defending their
population and borders. The enemy is trying to mislead not only the
international community, but also its own people, disseminating hatred
towards Armenians,” RA Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan said today at
a press conference.

He mentioned that he had talks with the Ambassadors of U.S.A, Russia,
Great Britain to Armenia, as well as with Georgia’s Defense Minister,
conveying the presenting the stance of the Armenian side.

Pointing out with sorrow, that Armenia has proved its commitment to
peace by the cost of victims, the Defense Minister stressed that the
responsibility for the victims of Armenia and Azerbaijan lies on the
“Military and Political leadership of Azerbaijan”