Author: Badalian Vardan

PARIS SHOOTINGS MURDERED KURDISH ACTIVISTS HAD TIES TO GERMANY

AFP / IHLAS NEWS AGENCY
Slain Kurdish activist Sakine Cansiz (L) with Abdullah Öcalan, the
leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), in 1995.

The murder of three Kurdish activists in Paris last week remains
a mystery, but SPIEGEL has uncovered details about their ties to
Germany. Two of the women were under investigation by German federal
prosecutors.

Two of the three Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) activists shot to death
last week in Paris were important functionaries within the banned
organization’s German wing, and were also under investigation here,
SPIEGEL has learned.

ANZEIGE

The German attorney general was looking into potential criminal
activities by Sakine Cansiz and Leyla Söylemez, who were found murdered
along with a third woman at the Kurdish Information Center in the
French capital last Thursday. They were suspected of supporting a
terrorist organization abroad.

Cansiz was known as an important figure in the northern German cadre
of the PKK, the Kurdish separatist group considered to be a terrorist
organization by Turkey and most Western countries. She was also a
member of the Kurdish National Congress in Brussels.

In March 2007, authorities arrested Cansiz in a café in Hamburg’s
Schanzenviertel district with an international warrant issued by
Turkey, but the city’s regional appeals court opted not to extradite
her. The court ruled that the accusations against Cansiz were too
vague.

Concurrently, however, Hamburg state prosecutors began investigating
her for her role in the PKK. Federal prosecutors took over the case
in 2008.

A close companion of now imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan,
Cansiz herself spent some 12 years in Turkey’s Diyarbakir Prison,
notorious for the systematic torture that took place there, and later
went on to become an important PKK representative in Europe. In 1998
France granted Cansiz asylum, but most recently she was thought to
have spent time in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

New Strain on Peace Efforts

Leyla Söylemez’s connection to Germany began in the 1990s, when she
fled here with her family. Living in the eastern German city of Halle,
she studied architecture and was an active member of the PKK youth
branch. Some years ago, however, she quit her studies, apparently to
concentrate fully on her political activities.

While it remains unclear exactly who might be behind the mysterious
shootings, the triple-murder in Paris is likely to strain recent
efforts toward reconciliation between the Turkish government and the
PKK. On Dec. 28, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed
during a television interview that after a long hiatus, his government
had renewed talks with PKK leader Öcalan, who is currently in solitary
confinement on the island of Imrali, in the Sea of Marmara. Shortly
thereafter, one of Erdogan’s advisors disclosed that the head of
Turkey’s MIT intelligence agency, Hakan Fidan, had spent Dec. 23 and
24 on the island to meet with the prisoner.

The New Year then brought permission for two Kurdish politicians to
meet with Öcalan as well. It was the first time since his arrest
and imprisonment that he was given such a privilege, and its very
occurrence is evidence that the man seen as a terrorist leader by
the majority of the Turkish government is now ready to take an active
role in finding a peaceful solution to decades of bloody conflict in
the country’s southeast.

Turkish media had also recently reported that a fundamental agreement
had already been made. Some suspect that the murders were an attempt
to stall the peace talks, though it remains unclear who was responsible
and both sides are blaming each other for the crime.

Over the weekend some 15,000 people from around Europe — many of
them Kurds living in Germany — gathered in Paris to demand justice
in the murders in Paris.

Appearing on television on Saturday, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan
demanded that France solve the murders “immediately,” and criticized
the country for granting Cansiz asylum. Turkey has frequently
criticized European nations for inadequate support in its fight
against the PKK, and Erdogan also mentioned Germany’s decision not
to extradite Cansiz in 2007.

SPIEGEL/kla

WHO’S BEHIND THE ASSASSINATION OF THREE KURDISH WOMEN IN THE HEART OF THE FRENCH CAPITAL?

Paris Murder Mystery

BY ERIC PAPE | JANUARY 11, 2013

PARIS – At first, it sounded like a horror story torn from the pages
of American tabloids: the corpses of three women were found on the
second floor office of an apartment building on Jan. 10. Two of the
women had bullets holes in the back of their heads, the third was
shot in the stomach and the forehead.

But this was here, in Paris, and just down the street from La Gare Du
Nord, the city’s main train station. Multiple murders don’t happen
often in the French capital. Guns, while very gradually becoming
more common in parts of France, are rarely used by anyone other than
authorities. Sometimes though, they are used by hit-men, terrorists,
or hit-men hired by terrorists.

So when suited men pushed a bright blue gurney holding a small,
limp corpse past journalists and passersby in the working class 10th
arrondissement on Thursday afternoon, it brought home how different
gun violence is here. This wasn’t a random crime, a brutal robbery,
a mentally ill person, or someone bullied until they retaliated,
aided by easy access to guns. This was, as French authorities quickly
recognized, a triple execution, almost certainly by a professional
killer, apparently using a silencer. The triple murder was so discreet
that in a multi-floor building, no one noticed when it happened. The
women were, police believe, killed at around 3 p.m. on January 9,
but their bodies were not found until after midnight.

Over the next 24 hours, French authorities — including its
anti-terror brigade — quickly pieced together the key elements of
what happened. Their ongoing investigation highlights the international
political intrigue and the broader stakes surrounding this attack. Two
of the three women were prominent members of France’s large Kurdish
immigrant community, 90 percent of whom come from Turkey, and the
executions took place just as the Turkish media were reporting that
Ankara and the militant Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) had come to
an agreement aimed at ending nearly the three decades of violence
that have claimed as many as 45,000 lives. The PKK is designated a
terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, France and the
European Union.

One of those killed was Sakine Cansiz, 55, a well-respected figure in
the Kurdish exile community and, Turkish authorities say, a founding
member of the PKK. Some Kurds in Paris believed her to be close to
Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is currently serving a
life sentence in Turkey. Ocalan, who has apparently softened his
attitudes on violence since his arrest, is apparently leading the
peace talks with the Turkish government from his jail cell. Those
talks are said to aim for a step-by-step cessation of hostilities:
the PKK is to stop its attacks in March and, soon after, the Turkish
state will restore the rights of its Kurdish minority, as well as
satisfy some other grievances. It is unclear how the triple murder
might affect those negotiations.

A second victim was Fidan Dogan, 32, who ran the Kurdish information
center where the bodies were found. She was a representative of the
Kurdistan National Congress, which is a Brussels-based coalition
of supportive organizations across Europe. The third victim, Leyla
Soylemez, is described as a recently arrived twenty-something Kurdish
activist. She may well have been in the wrong place, with the wrong
people, at the wrong time. Various friends and colleagues told French
media that Dogan and Cansiz were aware enough of the dangers they faced
in the one-bedroom apartment that acted as the unmarked office for
the information center that they made sure to never be alone there,
but that may have merely meant a larger death toll when one or both
of them were targeted.

Shock over the executions has been sharp. Almost immediately after the
discovery of the bodies late at night by friends and colleagues —
who suspected something was up when they noticed the lights were on
in the office but the women weren’t answering their phones — word
spread quickly through the city’s Kurdish community. By morning on
Thursday, hundreds of Kurds had gathered outside, in front of quickly
installed police barricades. One of the many protest signs said:
“We are all PKK!” Another read: “Turkey the assassin, [President]
Hollande the accomplice!” Others called for a political solution to
the Kurdistan problem. Many protesters, some with tears in their eyes,
waved Kurdish flags.

The executions almost immediately unleashed a flurry of conspiracy
theories in the crowd, including some on fresh-made protest signs,
as to who was behind them. Suspects include the Turkish intelligence,
a right-wing nationalist fringe grouping in Turkey called the “Gray
Wolves,” and Iranian or Syrian authorities who want to destabilize
Turkey for being close to the West, the United States, and the French
government.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan didn’t take long to offer
his own theory. He told journalists on Jan. 11 that the murders were
likely the result of an internal battle within the PKK. His thin
evidence: the killer or killers had gotten into a building with a
security door code, and had somehow managed to get into the office
without breaking down the door. He also suggested that the killings
could have been the work of outside actors looking to sabotage the
peace negotiations.

His opinions are unlikely to carry much weight with Kurdish exiles
whose feelings of destabilization are very real. An unidentified young
man at the protest on Rue Lafayette summarized the sense of fury,
and vulnerability, that the killings instilled in the Kurdish exile
community. “Most of the people who are here have endured repression in
Turkey. Most are political refugees who came to France, and found that
here, too, the repression continues. There are massacres here, too.

There is a feeling of anger, of being fed up.”

Those who question the interest of French authorities — who
have repeatedly investigated allegations of extortion of Kurdish
businesses with a “revolutionary tax” — in pursuing justice in this
murder investigation could take heart from comments that same day
by President Francois Hollande. He declared that he was personally
affected by the attack, as he knew one of the victims who “regularly
came to meet” him and other political figures.

But the French president has a very full plate at the moment. In
addition to trying to restore the stagnant French economy, keep the
euro afloat, and invert the curb on inflation that is approaching
11 percent, Hollande gave the green light on Friday for French
troops to take part in a military intervention in Mali. Since
Hollande’s inauguration in May, Kurdish concerns have hardly been a
pressing issue, and it is no surprise that he wants to wait for the
investigation to advance before commenting further.

Kurds do have decades-old links to Hollande’s Socialist party. A large
wave of Kurdish immigrants came to France for economic reasons in the
1960s and 1970s, but those who followed in the 1980s tended to be
more politically inclined activists. And they managed to convince
then-President Francois Mitterrand’s wife, Danielle, to raise
awareness about the hardships and discrimination that they faced in
Turkey and in parts of the Middle East. (Interestingly, when Iraqi
Kurds finagled an essentially autonomous region out of the U.S.-led
invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein, it took the wind out of some
of their support in Europe.)

Given the many big issues weighing on Hollande, Kurdish exiles in
search of justice for the Paris murders might do well to stir a dead
woman’s personal link to the French president, to keep him focused
on their lost comrades.

How any of this will affect the negotiations between the imprisoned
Kurdish leader and Ankara, and what it means for the future of the
Turkish Kurds, remains an open question. As is the mystery of who’s
responsible for three new corpses in Paris.

ARMENIAN ACTIVIST VAHAGN CHAKHALYAN TO BE RELEASED UNDER AMNESTY – ARMENIAN MP

January 14, 2013 | 18:11

YEREVAN.- During this month, Armenian activist, political prisoner
Vahagn Chakhalyan will be released due to an amnesty, the president of
Javakhk union, Armenian MP Shirak Torosyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am
about this.

He noted that the reports about Chakhalyan’s release are a result of
misunderstanding. In fact, according to him, Chakhalyan was included
in the list of the prisoners, but then his name was removed.

“Georgian authorities decided to release him due to amnesty, not as
a political prisoner. The issue is being resolved,” he said.

Armen Gevorgyan and Ruben Shekoyan have already been released under
amnesty adopted by the Georgian parliament. They both were activists
of the Armenian community of Ajara and were arrested in October 2010
and sentenced to 11 years in jail without sufficient grounds.

ARMENIA’S ONLY SCHOOL FOR BLIND CHILDREN NEEDS HELP

tert.am
14.01.13

Yerevan Special School #14 for blind children is using Braille adapted
for Armenian children by Nikoghayos Tigranyan.

However, Braille books are expensive. Alik Aharonyan, Executive
Director of the school, notes that five copies of a textbook in
Braille costs AMD 1m (about $2,500).

“One braillewriter costs 500 to 700 US dollars. We have them due
to philanthropists, but they have to be replaced with new ones,”
Mr Aharonyan told Tert.am. He stressed the problem of textbooks and
material and technical resources.

An electronic library is one of the school’s achievements. This is
the only school in the South Caucasus created with the sponsorship
of the Czech Embassy in Armenia.

“At our school the blind children can use computers. We are also
provided with books thanks to philanthropists. Armenia’s Ministry
of Education and Science provides 2,000 special notebooks for the
children,” Mr Aharonyan said.

With respect to further education for the blind children, Anahit
Muradyan of Armenia’s Ministry of Education and Science said that
they may receive free higher education if they get pass marks set
for paying students.

One more problem is that blind children living in Armenia’s regions
cannot attend the Yerevan school.

Martin Sargsyan, Vice-Chairman of the Blind’s Union, said that one
more school for blind grown-ups is working in Armenia.

UN TO DISCUSS THE ISSUE OF DISPATCHING PEACEKEEPING FORCES TO SYRIA

21:25, 14 January, 2013

YEREVAN, JANUARY 14, ARMENPRESS: United Nations Secretariat is
discussing the options of dispatching peacekeeping forces to Syria. As
reports Armenpress, Interfax was informed from Russian deputy Foreign
Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.

“Probably there is need for dispatching international observers to
Syria. As I understand, different options are being discussed in
Secretariat, preliminary works are being carried out up to par,”
Bogdanov said.

In accordance with UN data, Syrian conflict lasting about 22 months
caused the death of about 60 000 people.

SYRIANS STAGE MASSIVE PRO-ASSAD RALLY IN IDLIB

FNA
19:16 | 2013-01-14

TEHRAN (FNA)- Thousands of Syrians took to the streets in the Northern
province of Idlib on Monday to show their strong support for President
Bashar al-Assad and his government.

More than 8,000 people gathered in Ibrahim Hanano square in Idlib
to voice their hatred for terrorists and renew their support for the
Syrian government and army as government troops made major advancements
in various parts of the country.

The Syrian army killed a terrorist ringleader, Emad Eissa al-Amari,
in Reef (outskirts of) Daraa on Monday. The Syrian army also made
great advancements in Western Reef (outskirts of) Homs today, and
repelled a terrorist attack on the area.

The army pushed back a terrorist attack on a military check post
near the Mihan town in the Western part of Reef Homs. At least,
27 terrorists were killed in heavy clashes today.

The army also purged terrorists from key areas in Central Homs. The
Syrian troops advanced in Asvaq Abu al-Oaf town today. The army also
found a chamber in the town of al-Vaar which has been used by the
terrorists for torturing the people and army soldiers.

Popular support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has grown as
20,000 volunteers will join the Syrian army by next week. This can
help end the Syrian crisis in a shorter time, military analysts say.

Last week, people across Syria took to the streets to show their
support and solidarity with President Assad and the Syrian army after
Assad called for a diplomatic solution to his country’s crisis and
also a halt to foreign military and financial backups for the armed
rebel groups fighting the government.

After President Assad’s speech, people in tens of thousands took
to the streets in different cities across the country to show their
support for the president’s policies.

In Homs, people in various districts, including Shaare’ Al-Hazareh,
Wadi Al-Dahab, Akramatel Jadidah, Hayezzahra and Armen marched in
support of President Assad and the Syrian Army and asked for the exit
of terrorists and armed groups from different parts of Homs.

During his speech at Damascus University on January 6, President Assad
proposed a three-staged plan for forming the national unity government.

The Syrian president underlined the need for continuing fights against
the terrorists in his country.

President Assad said his country is being subjected to an unprecedented
attack, adding that the conflict can only be solved through a popular
movement.

Addressing the nation in a rare speech and his first since June,
he said his forces were fighting groups of “murderous criminals”.

President Assad said Syria will not take dictates from anyone.

He called on all Syrians to take part in an initiative that would
end the nearly 22-month old conflict, but did not give any details
on the plan.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized
attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border
guards being reported across the country.

The US and its western and regional allies have long sought to
topple Assad and his ruling system. Media reports said that the
Syrian rebels and terrorist groups have received significantly more
and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid for by the Persian
Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United States.

The US daily, Washington Post, reported in May that the Syrian
rebels and terrorist groups battling the President Bashar al-Assad’s
government have received significantly more and better weapons in
recent weeks, a crime paid for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and
coordinated by the United States.

The newspaper, quoting opposition activists and US and foreign
officials, reported that Obama administration officials emphasized
the administration has expanded contacts with opposition military
forces to provide the Persian Gulf nations with assessments of rebel
credibility and command-and-control infrastructure.

Opposition activists who several months ago said the rebels were
running out of ammunition said in May that the flow of weapons – most
bought on the black market in neighboring countries or from elements
of the Syrian military in the past – has significantly increased after
a decision by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Persian Gulf states to
provide millions of dollars in funding each month.

“TER-PETROSSIAN DESTROYED THE KOCHARYAN REGIME; THAT IS WHY HE LEFT, OTHERWISE HE WOULDN’T HAVE LEFT”

JANUARY 11, 2013 20:36

Have you become so disappointed in Levon Ter-Petrossian and the
Congress that, although you stood by the first president at the time,
you now say that you want Serzh Sargsyan to win? In response to this
question of , Azat Arshakyan, a former member of the
Supreme Council, said today: “First of all, Levon Ter-Petrossian
abandoned the struggle. He removed a very big obstacle in Serzh
Sargsyan’s way to reelection by that very move. I mean his latest
decision.”

We asked to clarify whether he was disappointed by that, he replied:
“I am not disappointed in Levon Ter-Petrossian. I am saying, ‘Long
live the president. The first president left, long live the incumbent
president.’ I don’t think that since Levon Ter-Petrossian has left,
Armenia should be without a president. Armenia must have a president,
and whoever is elected in the short run, he will be our president. And
I say thank you to Levon Ter-Petrossian that he struggled. I say thank
you to him also for leaving, that he told us to act as we wished,
every one of us separately. Since he, the commander, has left, we
should live as we wish.”

We inquired what the Congress’s destiny would be, whether it would
dissolve, disappear, he replied: “It had better dissolve, because
the Armenian National Congress (ANC) rallied around him. The ANC was
Levon Ter-Petrossian and the parties. Now the parties should continue
their work without Levon Ter-Petrossian.”

According to Azat Arshakyan, Levon Ter-Petrossian himself was a strong
rival to Serzh Sargsyan and could be a serious obstacle in his way to
reelection. In response to our question whether Levon Ter-Petrossian
would have been a strong rival even without the Prosperous Armenia
Party (PAP), he said: “He would have been even stronger with the PAP.

I think the Congress’s potential has reduced recently. That is the
very reason why Levon Ter-Petrossian left. So the resources of the
ANC had diminished.”

Azat Arshakyan made a very interesting statement. “I think that the
ANC and Levon Ter-Petrossian had done what they had been supposed to
do. Levon Ter-Petrossian and the Congress ousted Robert Kocharyan from
power and had nothing else to do. Levon Ter-Petrossian stated they
would destroy the regime, didn’t he? The regime is destroyed. Levon
Ter-Petrossian actually thought he had done his job; that is why he
left. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have left.”

In response to our observation that Levon Ter-Petrossian had also
called this government – not only Kocharyan’s rule – an authoritarian
regime during the parliamentary election, he said: “You’re right,
Levon Ter-Petrossian was consistent in that sense, but he also talked
about realpolitik, didn’t he? In some cases, pragmatic moves should
be made – cooperation with the enemy’s enemy or some intrigues. I
don’t think I have the right to criticize Master Levon Ter-Petrossian.”

When we expressed surprise that according to him, since the first
president had left, the incumbent president had to be saluted, Azat
Arshakyan said: “Yes, why not? I think that Serzh Sargsyan will purge
Armenia of anti-political elements. There are many worthless people
in politics. I think Serzg Sargsyan will remove them and will go down
in history by that.”

Since Azat Arshakyan had a business, we asked him whether he “plays
into Serzh Sargsyan’s hands” because of his business, he assured that
he had had that business also during Robert Kocharyan’s presidency
when he had been oppressed.

Hripsime JEBEJYAN

MAKEYAN: WE SHOULD CLEANSE HAK FROM ILL-MANNERED PUNKS

12:17 PM | TODAY | POLITICS

We should cleanse the Armenian National Congress (HAK) from
ill-mannered punks, Petros Makeyan, Chairman of the Democratic Homeland
Party, member of the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK),
said in reply to all those who are calling [on the Facebook network]
for his the expulsion from the HAK.

He says that the HAK was established by fighters and not by these
ill-mannered punks.

Mr Makeyan has presented to the HAK a package of measures suggesting
ways to recover the situation but he refrained from publishing the
details.

At this moment, Petros Makeyan does not know whether Levon
Ter-Petrosyan should resign as HAK Leader or not.

“It is up to Levon Ter-Petrosyan to decide,” he said adding that he
did not know if Ter-Petrosyan would participate in the discussion of
the document or not.

SERZH SARGSYAN: FULL PARTICIPATION OF NKR IN THE NEGOTIATIONS IS THE IMPERATIVE OF THE TIME

18:08 15.01.2013

The joint sitting of the leadership of the legislative, executive and
judicial authorities was held at the Ministry of Health today chaired
By President Serzh Sargsyan, commander-in-chief of RA Armed Forces.

“The utmost objective of our foreign policy is the final legal
consolidation of the victory in the aggressive war unleashed by
Azerbaijan against Artsakh. The Nagorno Karabakh Republic must be
recognized by the international community, since there is no logical
explanation as to why the people, who have realized their right to
self-determination within the law and have defended it in unequal
conditions, should be part of Azerbaijan. Why should the destiny of
those people be conditioned by the illegal decision Stalin once made?”

President Sargsyan stated at the sitting.

“The obvious anti-Armenian, fascist, bellicose policy of the
Azerbaijani authorities on the issue remains a major threat to our
security. Azerbaijan openly violates the conditions of the. Soldiers
die at the line of contact, and their blood is on the Azerbaijani
authorities.

In a few days we’ll mark the 25th anniversary of the Karabakh
Movement. But it was the start of the modern phase of the movement.

the people Ïf Karabakh never put up with Stalin’s illegality, they
never considered themselves citizens of Azerbaijan, never accepted
the decision to annex Karabakh to Azerbaijan.”

The ceasefire agreement signed 19 year ago at the request of Azerbaijan
consolidated the victory of the Armenian self-defense struggle,”
President Sargsyan said, adding that “ignoring the provisions of the
ceasefire agreement, Azerbaijan continues to fire not only Artsakh,
but also the Republic of Armenia.

“The Azerbaijani authorities openly refute the proposals of the
mediators to withdraw the snipers from the line of contact and create
mechanisms to investigate the border incidents. They even refuse to
implement the confidence-building measures envisaged by the agreement
signed in Sochi.”

“We must always be ready for a new military adventurism by a regime
which propagates war. I think our neighbors understand that war will
be equally, if not more destructive to Azerbaijan. At the same time,
I don’t think the Azerbaijani authorities are concerned about the
fate of their people. They will be ready to resume military actions
if they consider they have an exceptional privilege over Armenia or
if it is necessary to diverge the attention from domestic problems.

Armenia and Azerbaijan do not want war, but everyone should be
confident that we’ll give a worthy response to to any challenge. Never
again will the people of Artsakh stand the danger of physical
annihilation. The Republic of Armenia is a guarantor of this.

The fate of Artsakh will be decided by its people. It is consolidated
by international law and a number of international documents.

Therefore, the full participation of the NKR authorities is an
imperative of the time,” the President said.

“Speaking about Azerbaijan we must keep in mind that there is a state
in the region, which unequivocally supports the anti-Armenian policy
of Azerbaijan. The Turkish-Azerbaijani unity created under the slogan
“One nation, two states” has been trying to grab unilateral concessions
from Armenia through the deepening of blockade and dividing lines and
exclusion of cooperation in the course of the past twenty years. They
have never succeeded and will never succeed ” President Sargsyan
declared.

“As a peace-loving, progressive and farsighted nation, we understand
the importance of the creation of an atmosphere of mutual trust for
the peaceful co-existence with neighbors and move forward. With this
in mind we initiated the normalization of relations with Turkey,”
the President stated.

“The recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide is the
duty of Turkey before the victims of the Genocide, the survivors and
their descendants, all mankind and first of all, its own people,” the
President said. “I think that without Turkey’s sincere penitence and
elimination of the consequences of the Genocide, the secure existence
of Armenia in the region will continue to be endangered,” he added.

SERBIAN DAILY REFLECTS ON KARABAKH

news.am
January 15, 2013 | 15:36

Serbia’s leading Politika daily ran an article by Serbian journalist
Dragan Vukotic, who shared his impressions of his visit to the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR).

In his article, the journalist presented the history of the Karabakh
conflict and the excerpts from his conversations with the soldiers
at the frontlines.

Vukotic wrote that, even though the Karabakh Armenians-who are the
majority there-had wished to unite with Armenia, the Communist Caucasus
Bureau adopted a decision in 1921 in favor of Azerbaijan. The author
of the article added that the Turkey of Ataturk-the founder of the
Republic of Turkey-, which was assisting Azerbaijan, likewise had a
great impact on the reaching of such unfavorable decision for Armenia.

As per the Serbian journalist, the collapse of the USSR and the
Armenian pogroms-which commenced in 1988-, however, became a turning
point.

Dragan Vukotic wrote that he is amazed at the endurance, courage,
and vigilance of Armenian soldiers, and he jokingly named them
“crazy Armenians.”

“And this is why the Azerbaijanis do not dare to attack [us], albeit
they are lot more [in number]. They know that we fight until the end,”
one of the soldiers told the Serbian journalist.

In addition, Dragan Vukotic noted in his article that even though
NKR is not internationally recognized, it is de facto a full state
with its own government, parliament, and police.