Author: Badalian Vardan

AL QAEDA-LINKED ISLAMISTS CAPTURE SYRIAN CHRISTIAN VILLAGE

Christian Post
March 26 2014

By Morgan Lee , Christian Post Reporter
March 26, 2014|3:59 pm

Syrian Islamist forces have killed Hilal Assad, a relative of Syrian
President Bashar al Assad and key commander of the government military
forces who was defending the Armenian Christian city of Kassat last
weekend.

Led by Al-Nusra forces, fighters from Ahrar al Sham, the Islamic Front,
and others affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria took
over the 1,700 person town on Sunday, filled with many believed to
be backing President Bashar al Assad in hopes that he could better
ensure their safety than Islamist rebels, according to the AP. The
victorious rebels walked through the streets shouting and praising
Allah, the Christian Broadcasting Network has described.

Many of the Armenian-Syrians subsequently lashed out at Turkey
for allowing Islamists to cross and transport weapons across the
Syrian-Turkish border with few repercussions, and expressed anger
towards Turkey shooting down a Syrian war plane the same weekend.

“The Turks are [working against] us again,” a Kassab resident tweeted.

“This is unacceptable considering history. Genocide repeat [in]
Kassab. What a bad day this has been. God bless everyone who is
defending the beautiful village of Kassab.”

Armenian-Syrians are descendants of those who fled a genocide
that came at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1915, killing 1.5
million of their people, and resettled in Syria. Triggered by the
increased violence in the region, Armenian-Syrians have seemingly
begun to conflate the actions of Turkey and Al-Qaeda-linked groups
like al-Nusra.

A Kassab student now living in the United Arab Emirates told the WSJ
that many of the town’s residents are now “living in the Armenian
church of Latakia [city] where they receive food from the Armenians
living there.”

“The place we used to spend our summer memories has turned into a war
zone….the Free Syrian Army is bombing the place while the Syrian Army
is doing all they can do to save Kassab…The only positive thing is
that the people in Kassab, including my friends and family, escaped
just in time. They will surely going to be homeless after the battle.”

Christians, who make up around 8 percent of the Syrian population,
have suffered heavily, with Islamic rebel groups destroying churches
and sometimes entire towns, murdering dozens of followers of Christ.

Syrian president elections will be held in July.

SYRIA REBELS ADVANCE IN LATAKIA, ESTABLISH FIRST COASTAL TOE-HOLD

Christian Science Monitor
March 26 2014

Syrian rebel advances into Latakia, a bastion of support for Bashar
al-Assad, prompted a furious government response and fears among
religious minorities.

By Ariel Zirulnick, Staff writer / March 26, 2014

Syrian rebels took parts of Latakia Province this week, securing their
first coastal foothold and one in the heart of a regime stronghold.

Latakia is President Bashar al-Assad’s home province.

The offensive there began on Friday, when Islamist rebels took a
Turkish border crossing and the nearby village of Kasab, Reuters
reports. Latakia and neighboring Tartous Province are Syria’s Alawite
heartland. The Alawite faith, which the Assad family and many members
of the regime inner circle belong to, is an offshoot from Shiite Islam.

The regime has responded to the offensive with reinforcements and
airstrikes. Reuters cites the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
as reporting that 14 regime fighters and six rebels were killed in
fighting Tuesday and 75 wounded rebels were brought across the border
to Turkey for treatment.

The border crossing adjacent to Kasab gives rebels easier access to
regime territory from Turkey. Most of the border region is already
under rebel control.

The Associated Press reports that the rebel push on the coastal
region is an effort to draw regime power away from other parts of
Syria where rebels have faltered:

Rebels were hoping that the clashes would draw more Syrian soldiers
to the area, relieving some pressure on the opposition fighters who
have been badly weakened elsewhere in the country, said an activist
in Latakia who identified himself as Mohammed Abu al-Hassan.

“The thinking is to open a battle that will make the regime rush to
fight,” Abu al-Hassan said. “The regime can’t imagine losing the sea
(of Latakia). They will bring reinforcements, and that will lessen
the pressure (elsewhere).”

The opposition recently lost its foothold in the Qalamoun region,
adjacent to the Lebanese border, just north of Damascus. The defeat,
which sent thousands of refugees and likely many rebel fighters fleeing
into Lebanon, cut the Syrian rebels off from critical smuggling
routes used both to send supplies to rebels and to ferry fighters
back and forth.

Much attention has been given to Kasab, where support for the regime
runs deep, borne out of fear of persecution by rebel elements. The
village is made up largely of Armenian Christians, who had a fraught
history in the region, particularly Turkey, long before the Syrian
war broke out.

Christians in Syria typically back the regime, which, made up largely
of members of the Alawite minority, has a reputation for protecting
religious minorities, The Wall Street Journal reports:

For many of Kassab’s Armenian-Syrians, the Nusra Front occupies one
side of the same coin the Turks do as well – an existential threat
in a war where initial concepts like freedom and democracy have been
sidelined by minorities’ concerns, steeped in thousand-year-old
memories of past injustices perpetrated across the region. Better
the devil you know, than the one you don’t, is the common Christian
refrain.

Armenian-Syrians expressed outrage Sunday over radical Islamist
rebels taking over Kassab, which they said would threaten the town’s
Christian inhabitants, many supporters of President Bashar al Assad’s
forces. Kassab residents cheered on Damascus in the fight against
rebels this weekend, believing the alliance with Mr. Assad — an
Alawite, another religious minority — a safer bet to protect their
interests.

Armenian-Syrians blamed Turkey for rebel advances in Kassab — as
Ankara has long turned a blind eye to rebels crossing their borders and
weapons flows — and equated a win by Nusra with the Armenian genocide.

Islamist rebel groups have become notorious for brutal tactics
and hardline Islamist rule, which has eroded their support among
anti-Assad Syrians. However, perhaps cognizant of Kasab residents’
fears, they released videos of fighters protecting a church and
helping local elderly residents, Reuters reports.

The Associated Press reports that, according to antigovernment
activists, the rebels also captured a coastal tourist area named
Samra on Tuesday. It is tiny and lacks a port, so its capture is more
symbolic than strategic — the first holding with direct access to
the Mediterranean. The rebels posted a video of themselves sitting
by the sea.

Mr. Hassan, mentioned in the first AP report, said that Samra could
be used to smuggle weapons, and that it has been a popular smuggling
point for decades.

SYRIAN CIVIL WAR SPREADS TO ISRAEL, TURKEY

Christian Broadcasting Network
March 26 2014

By Chris Mitchell and John Waage

JERUSALEM, Israel – When the Syrian uprising turned into a civil
war in 2011, most of the trouble stayed inside Syria’s borders,
but that’s changing.

This week armored personnel carriers rushed to Beirut, Lebanon, to
prevent fighting between supporters and opponents of Syrian President
Bashar al Assad. It’s a sign the war has spread well beyond Syria’s
borders.

Another sign: at an election rally last Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan praised the Turkish air force for shooting down a
Syrian plane after it violated Turkey’s air space.

“If you violate our border, our slap will be hard. Therefore, I
congratulate firstly our chief of general staff, and our pilots,”
Erdogan said.

Also last week, Israeli warplanes struck Syrian military posts in the
Golan Heights after a roadside bombing wounded four Israeli soldiers.

It was some of the worst fighting on Israel’s border with Syria
in decades.

Israel doesn’t want a war with Syria, and Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s government has tried to steer clear of the fight between
Assad and his opposition. But the conflict is expanding anyway.

“I think we can already consider now that the Israeli-Syria border is
back, is a conflict border once again,” Middle East expert Jonathan
Spyer, with the Gloria Institute, said.

“And what we’re going to see I think as in common with Israel’s other
conflict borders — for example vis-a-vis the Hamas statelet — is
that we will have periodic rounds of violence in which the Hezbollah
or the Assad regime or whoever it is or perhaps in other sectors of
the border the Sunni jihadists on the rebel side will try and redress
the balance against Israel,” he explained.

Muslim rebel groups, some backed by al Qaeda, are gaining ground
near the Turkish border. Recently, they entered a deserted Armenian
Christian town.

“Victory from God, we shall soon conquer!” they shouted.

A short time later, they gained their first foothold on the shores
of the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, Israel has been treating Syrians injured in the fighting.

In February, Netanyahu visited a field hospital and met with some of
the Syrian wounded. He also pointed to Iran as Assad’s chief sponsor
in the widening war.

“Who is supplying these bombs? Who’s supplying these weapons? Iran.

Who’s giving the instructions? Iran. Who’s giving the backing for
this butchery? Iran,” the prime minister said.

Middle East analysts like Spyer warn an Assad victory in Syria is a
victory for Iran.

“This would be an enormous victory for the Iran-led regional block. It
would mean Iran then conclusively established of a single pro-Iranian
block stretching effectively from western Afghanistan from the
Iranian-Afghan border all the way to Mediterranean Sea,” Spyer said.

“This would be an immense victory for the Iranians, and therefore,
an immense defeat for the U.S. interests, which sees, or at least
ought to see – I’m not quite sure if the U.S. does right now see it
this way – but ought to see the Iranian regional block as the most
potent and powerful challenge to Western interests and Western allies
in the Middle East,” he warned.

EXCLUSIVE: TURKISH MILITARY POUNDS SYRIAN ARMY BASES NEAR BORDER

Al-Alam, Iran
March 26 2014

Turkish military tanks have targeted Syrian army bases in the Kasab
border town, where the Syrian army has been battling numerous militant
groups to secure the border.

According to Al-Alam reporter in Syria’s Latakia, a huge explosion
was heard at a Syrian army base near Kasab after Turkish military
targeted the area.

The explosion has been followed with Turkish military firing several
other rockets at Syrian army bases, the reporter said citing military
sources.

The report said, Al-Qaeda’s al-Nusra front have raised their flags
over several Turkish military tanks near Kasab, as a sign of having
the area under their control.

Syria has been criticizing Turkey for ‘covering for’ militant groups
and helping them occupy the Syrian border.

On Sunday, Turkish military shot down a Syrian fighter jet at the
Syrian side of the common borders with Turkey, as it was engaged in
fighting with extremist foreign-backed militants.

Kasab and its surrounding villages are Armenian Christian-dominated
areas, and their value is primarily because of their location near
the Turkish border.

Having the town in their control, militant factions not only are able
to smuggle in arms for themselves, but are able to demand a cut when
other factions use those crossings.

SHI/SHI

MAN WITH KNIFE ENTERING ARMENIA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ENTRANCE IS HELPED WITH MONEY

March 26, 2014 | 15:08

YEREVAN. – I have a right to make money for my kids at the cost of
my blood.

A man by the name of Ashot, who had intruded into the Armenia National
Assembly (NA) area and attempted to commit suicide, told the aforesaid
to reporters.

In his words, being in a desperate financial situation, he had decided
to kill himself at the NA entrance so that senior officials may provide
assistance to his family, and his two children in children’s home.

According to Ashot, his only source of living is selling small
religious icons.

“Had they not helped me here [at the NA entrance], given [me] money,
I would have killed myself,” Ashot said adding, however, that he did
not know who had sent him the money.

The NA security officers did not tell reporters how much money they
had given to Ashot so he would leave.

As reported earlier, a middle-aged man holding a knife entered the
NA entrance, raised his shirt, and threatened to stab himself. He
demanded to see the President. “I have written petitions a thousand
times, asked for money for food, but no one responds to my plea. So,
I will stab myself,” the man stated.

USE OF PHOSPHATE AND POTASH FERTILIZERS TO RAISE CROP YIELD, HRACH BERBERYAN

YEREVAN, March 26. / ARKA /. Use of phosphate and potash fertilizers
will increase the level of crop yield and improve the quality
of agricultural produces, Hrach Berberyan, the chairman of the
Agrarian-Peasant Union of Armenia, said today.

Apart from nitrogen fertilizers the ministry of agriculture is expected
to sell, for the first time, also phosphate and potash fertilizers
to farmers at a price lower than at the market. The cost of a 50 kg
sack of nitrogen fertilizer is 6000 drams and the cost of phosphate
and potash fertilizers is 7000 drams.

“I think use of phosphate and potash fertilizers is extremely important
as they are instrumental in ensuring adequate nutrition for plants,”
Berberyan said.

He said also that use of new fertilizers will not only have a positive
impact on the output, but also contribute to improving the taste of
agricultural products.

However, Berberyan said the price of new fertilizers is too high and
suggested that the government subsidizes part of the cost

Earlier, deputy minister of agriculture Samvel Galstyan said the
ministry would bring in 33,281 tons of nitrogen, 2,647 tons of
phosphate and 1,618 tons of potash fertilizers this year. -0 –

– See more at:

ARMENIA IS READY TO DISCUSS VARIOUS SCENARIOS OF NAIRIT PLANT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

by Alexandr Avanesov

ARMINFO
Wednesday, March 26, 16:27

Nairit Plant CJSC has been operating at a loss since the day of its
foundation in 2001, the press service of Nairit Plant reports when
responding to the criticism made during the ARFD’s hearings on the
situation at the Plant.

To note, during the hearings the former head of the Plant, Karen
Israelyan, said that as of 1 Jan 2009 Nairit’s owner Rhinoville
Property Limited should have invested about 60 mln USD. Otherwise,
it was to be deprived of the Plant. “The company failed to perform its
obligations and the Government was aware of that and could have taken
the company’s shares and in that case the Government could have become
the sole owner of the Plant again. Nairit’s debt reached 300 mln USD
due to the offshore company”, he said. As regards the further fate
of Nairit, Israelyan assured that even in the current condition the
Plant can operate and overcome all the difficulties if the Government
displays a desire and will. “The people are eager to work. The
equipment is in good condition. The Plant can be re- launched”, he
said. According to Israelyan’s estimations, today the Plant needs
20 mln USD to be restored. As regards the possibilities to sell the
Plant’s products, the ex-head of the Plant is sure that it will take
Nairit only a few months to gain a foothold in the market again.

In the meantime, the employees of the Plant consider that Nairit
operated at a loss even when Israelyan was the director (2006-2007).

Moreover, the prime cost of the products was higher than the sales.

The company is ready to discuss various scenarios of the further
development strategy with the investors interested in production of
rubber and related goods. The company qualifies Israelyan’s statements
as “a cheap show”.

To recall, on 12 March 2014 the Arbitration Court of Moscow sustained
Interstate Bank’s claim on recovery of a $25,183 million debt from
Nairit Plant, a chemical giant in Armenia. The defendant, Nairit Plant,
is a credit bondsman. The credit was given to the plant’s owner,
Rhinoville Property Limited. As a result of the accumulated debt,
Nairit was damaged in an amount of $220-240 million, and its debt
for salary amounted to $12 million.

Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft has been actively interested in
the Nairit plant. On 23 December 2013 Rosneft, L.L.C. PIRELLI Tyre
Russia, and Oil

Techno signed a Memorandum of Understanding with regard to
establishing styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) production joint venture
in Armenia. The total cost of the project is $500 million. Rosneft
said the implementation of this project will help introduce new
technologies in Armenia and create a modern production facility of
state-of-the-art eco-friendly materials – SBR is employed in the
production of “Green tires”, which improves fuel economy performance
and also tire grip in wet and dry conditions.

Under the terms of the Memorandum Rosneft intends to be a leading
investor and equity holder in Yerevan’s Nairit plant and Pirelli will
cooperate jointly with Rosneft in research and development activities
to develop SBR and is interested in entering into a long-term off-take
agreement to purchase the SBR produced.

Nairit enterprise was the monopoly manufacturer of chloroprene rubbers
in the USSR. In 2006, 90% of Nairit’s shares were sold to Rhinoville
Property Limited for $40 million, while the remaining 10% belong to
the Armenian government. The plant has not operated since April 2010.

JIRAIR LIBARIDIAN SAYS IF ARMENIA DID NOT JOIN CUSTOMS UNION IT WOULD LOSE NAGORNO-KARABAKH

YEREVAN, March 26. / ARKA /. Armenia’s accession to the Customs Union
resulted from Russian threats that Armenia would lose Nagorno-Karabakh
if it signed an association agreement with EU, Jirair Libaridian,
a former chief adviser to the first post-Soviet president of Armenia
Levon Ter-Petrosian, said at a news conference in Yerevan today.

He said some former and present Russian government officials went
as far as to threaten that Russia’s security guarantees for Armenia
would be jeopardized as well.

“In my opinion, there is no other explanation to Armenia’s surprise
U-turn,” he said.

According to Libaridian, Armenia’s accession to the Russia-led Customs
Union is not a guarantee that Yerevan’s position will become stronger
in the Karabakh peace process.

“We have no guarantees that Karabakh would remain in the same status ,
if we join the Customs Union, but we know that if we do not, we can
lose it ,”- he said.-0-

– See more at:

ZHAMANAK: UKRAINE AMBASSADOR’S FUTURE WORK DEPENDS ON ARMENIA’S VOTE AT UN

March 26, 2014

YEREVAN. – The fate of the future work in Armenia by Ivan
Kukhta,Ukraine’s Ambassador to Armenia, will be determined in the
coming days, Zhamanak daily reported.

“Zhamanak’s diplomatic sources inform that official Kyiv will reach a
final decision on Armenia following the UN General Assembly meeting
slated for [Thursday,] March 27, during which a draft resolution on
invalidating the referendum held in Crimea will be put to a vote for
the representatives of the UN member countries [including Armenia].

“According to our diplomatic channels, the future fate of the
activities byUkraine’s ambassador to Armenia will be decided after
Armenia’s vote [at the UN General Assembly meeting],” Zhamanak wrote.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

TURKISH INTELLECTUALS CONDEMN ONGOING EVENTS IN KESSAB

10:36, 26 March, 2014

YEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS. The attacks against the
Armenian-populated Kessab and Turkey’s support to the terrorists
angered some Turkish intellectuals. As reports “Armenpress” citing
Turkish Demokrathaber.net, on this occasion prominent Turkish publisher
and author Ragip Zarakolu and publicist Sait Cetinoglu voiced about
their concerns.

“Al-Qaeda’s group easily crossed the border with Antakya and attacked
the magnificent region of Kessab, situated right on the opposite side
of the border. Among the other peculiarities of Kessab is that it is
an Armenian-populated town. But now Kessab is totally empty. The local
population has again had to migrate after 1915 and then 1939. They
currently settled in Latakia,” Ragip Zarakolu underscored.

Another Turkish intellectual Sait Cetinoglu stated that the houses
of the Armenians are being robbed. Among other things Sait Cetinoglu
emphasized: “I have friends in Kessab. Historian Hakob Cholakian from
Musa Dagh also lives in Kessab. I am concerned with the situation my
friends appeared in. Kessab was a real paradise on earth. What a pity
that nothing will be left from that beauty. There are testimonies
saying that the looting is coordinated from Turkey.”

The armed incursion began on Friday, March 21, with rebels associated
with Al-Qaeda’s al-Nusra Front, Sham al-Islam and Ansar al-Sham
crossing the Turkish border and attacking the Armenian civilian
population of Kessab. The attackers immediately seized two guard posts
overlooking Kessab, including a strategic hill known as Observatory
45 and later took over the border crossing point with Turkey. Snipers
targeted the civilian population and launched mortar attacks on the
town and the surrounding villages.

According to eyewitness accounts, the attackers crossed the Turkish
border with Syria openly passing through Turkish military barracks.

According to Turkish media reports, the attackers carried their
injured back to Turkey for treatment in the town of Yayladagi.

Some 670 Armenian families, the majority of the population of Kessab,
were evacuated by the local Armenian community leadership to safer
areas in neighboring Basit and Latakia. Ten to fifteen families with
relations too elderly to move were either unable to leave or chose
to stay in their homes.

On Saturday, March 22, Syrian troops launched a counteroffensive in an
attempt to regain the border crossing point, eye-witnesses and state
media reported. However, on Sunday, March 23, the extremist groups once
again entered the town of Kessab, took the remaining Armenian families
hostage, desecrated the town’s three Armenian churches, pillaging
local residences and occupying the town and surrounding villages.

Located in the northwestern corner of Syria, near the border with
Turkey, Kessab had, until very recently, evaded major battles in
the Syrian conflict. The local Armenian population had increased in
recent years with the city serving as safe-haven for those fleeing
from the war-torn cities of Yacubiye, Rakka and Aleppo.