Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

Interfax, Russia
Jan 14 2013

Karabakh airport may be used after Armenian pullout – Baku

BAKU. Jan 14

Azerbaijan will not mind operation of the Karabakh airport as long as
it becomes a part of the peace agreement resolving the Karabakh
conflict, Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told a Monday press
conference.

“The airport as such does not present a big problem; it may be used
for humanitarian and other purposes. But it must be a part of the ‘big
plan,'” the minister said.

“If Armenia agrees to pull out forces from the occupied Azeri lands
and to make this airport a part of the big peace plan, that would not
be a problem,” the minister explained.

Yet, the reopening of the airport will violate international norms if
Armenia continues to occupy Karabakh and adjoining areas, Mammadyarov
stressed. “If they want to use this airport, they have to withdraw
their forces,” he stressed.

In turn, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said that
Armenian flights above the occupied Azeri lands were illegal and might
seriously damage the Karabakh settlement. He said they disagreed with
the Armenian position; flights above the occupied territory were
impermissible and the question must be discussed at the OSCE Minsk
Group. Eide stressed that the sides must not take provocative steps.

Te jv

From: Baghdasarian

The Daily Star (Lebanon)
January 8, 2013 Tuesday

Armenian catholicos stresses need for dialogue

Aram I Keshishian, the Armenian Orthodox Catholicos of Cilicia, said
that Christians in the Middle East oppose marginalization and praised
efforts by President Michel Sleiman to push for dialogue among various
Lebanese factions.

BEIRUT: Aram I Keshishian, the Armenian Orthodox Catholicos of
Cilicia, said that Christians in the Middle East oppose
marginalization and praised efforts by President Michel Sleiman to
push for dialogue among various Lebanese factions. “The Middle East is
the cradle of Christianity, thus, despite the difficulties and
challenges the region is witnessing, particularly the sufferings of
the Christian sects, these will remain attached to their historical
roots and just rights,” said Keshishian during a Christmas Mass at the
Armenian Patriarchate in Antelias. The Armenian Orthodox sect in
Lebanon celebrated Christmas Sunday. He said he expects that the
rights of Christians will be respected by the new groups that are
coming to power in countries that are witnessing uprisings in the
region. “To be a minority in a society does not mean at all to be
marginalized.” Keshishian stressed the need to hold dialogue in
Lebanon. “Rather than trading barbs through audiovisual media outlets,
we should resort to constructive dialogue and consider that Lebanon’s
high interest come first.”

From: Baghdasarian

Renowned composer Yanni to give concert in Yerevan

16:03 – 19.01.13

Legendary world-renowned composer Yanni is scheduling a concert in
Armenia later this year.

Speaking to Tert.am, his producer, Arman Tsaturyan, said the concert
will take place in Yerevan’s Sports and Concert Complex on April 20
and 21.

Samvel Yerminyan, an Armenian composer from the United States, is also
set to perform at the event.

Tsaturyan added that Julio Iglesias is going to perform at the Sports
and Concert Complex on March 18, before Yanni’s concert.

The ticket prices for both events range between AMD 5,000 -AMD 80,000
($12-$200).

Sting and Mark Anthony are also scheduled to give concerts in Armenia,
the producer said, without giving further details.

From: Baghdasarian

Whistleblower reveals foreign policy blunders in Turkey

18 January 2013, Friday

ABDULLAH BOZKURT
[email protected]

A highly classified letter sent by an anonymous officer to the boss of
Turkey’s spy agency in 2007 was leaked to the press from the Turkish
Parliament this week. The letter, apparently written by a
whistleblower in the Special Forces Command (ÖKK), which is a special
operations unit answerable directly to the General Staff, reveals
shocking plans cooked up by a junta in the military. The ÖKK often
rendered services for the Tactical Mobilization Group (STK), formerly
known as the Special Warfare Department (ÖHD), an equivalent to the
Gladio style stay-behind operation in the Turkish military.
Therefore it is safe to assume that s/he had intimate knowledge of
shady deals planned in this secretive branch of the Turkish military.
The officer wrote six letters in total detailing how he was involved
in dirty schemes devised by a clandestine gang in special ops. They
were sent to the parliamentary Coup and Memorandum Investigation
Commission for examination by the National Intelligence Organization
(MÝT). The officer was complaining that the special forces were being
manipulated by a select group of coup-loving junta members who were
determined to oust the democratically elected and popular government
in Turkey despite the fact that the STK was designed to mobilize
national assets in time of war against the external threat. The letter
was addressed to then-Undersecretary of MÝT Emre Taner.

It was certainly a hair-raising experience to read the letter leaked
to reporters. According to the whistleblower’s account, the ÖKK was
ordered to draw plans to blow up two bridges across the Bosporus in
Ýstanbul, the Boðaziçi and Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridges, the Yalova
ferry and the Bolu Tunnel on the highway connecting Ankara and
Istanbul as well as key crossing points on the Black Sea Ring Highway.
The command’s plans also included the bombing of Atatürk’s mausoleum,
called Anýtkabir, in the country’s capital.

The plan also included a series of bombings during massive protests
that were held against the government in 2007, dubbed “republican
rallies” by their organizers, in several provinces of the country. The
attack was supposed to be blamed on religious fundamentalist groups
affiliated with the governing Justice and Development Party (AK
Party). We now learned from the ongoing court cases in Turkey that
these protests were organized with the manipulation of the Ergenekon
terrorist organization, a shadowy network nested within the state with
the aim of overthrowing the government.

Since there is not enough space to detail all plans mentioned in the
letter here, I will dwell on points that involve foreign policy and
Turkey’s neighbors. The letter claims that the junta wanted to risk
dragging the country into hot international conflicts just to expand
the maneuvering room of the military in Turkey and to put embarrassing
blemishes on the government’s record. Looking back to events in 2007
before and after the June snap elections held because of the
presidential election crisis in Parliament, it is obvious that some of
these plans were actually carried out.

For example, the reports on dogfights between Turkish and Greek jets
over the disputed Aegean airspace sharply increased following the May
2006 incident in which Turkish and Greek F-16 jet fighters collided in
mid-air as they were shadowing each other. The Turkish and Greek
foreign ministries exchanged mutual accusations claiming a violation
of national airspace in March 2007, almost a year after the aviation
incident. According to General Staff, in the first half of 2007
(interestingly in the period leading up to the July elections) Turkish
jets engaged Greek fighters 207 times to prevent incursion into
Turkish airspace. In the same year, cockpit conversations among
Turkish pilots and how they operate during these dogfights were posted
on the YouTube website. These events cannot be coincidental.

This reminds me of Operation Thunderstorm (Oraj) which was a sub-plot
of the Sledgehammer military coup operation that was discovered in
2010 court documents. The plan sees an escalation of the crisis with
Greece by provoking conflict in the air, at sea and on land borders.
However, the ultimate target of the plan was not Greece but the
Turkish government itself. Bringing Turkey to the brink of war with
Greece was a “means to an end” scenario to prepare the groundwork for
an armed military intervention in Turkey. It perfectly fit the
scenarios mentioned by the whistleblower’s letter in 2007.

The Oraj plan, dated February 2003, specifically asks for increased
flights over the Aegean and orders commanding officers to instruct
pilots to engage in harassment maneuvers with Greek fighter jets. It
wants Turkish pilots to be more aggressive and even issues new rules
of engagement allowing pilots to take shots at Greek fighters, albeit
unofficially. The plan suggests reorganizing the Special Fleet within
the Turkish Air Forces (THK) with the specific objective of tasking a
Turkish pilot to shoot down a Turkish jet in his own squadron in case
all efforts to provoke a Greek fighter jet to destroy a Turkish one
fail. Fabricated stories would then be planted in the media, saying
that Greece intentionally shot down a Turkish jet. The plotters hoped
that this would create a huge embarrassment for the ruling AK Party
government.

Going back to the letter again, another foreign policy issue the junta
tried to exploit by mobilizing some assets among civil society groups
in order to hammer the government was Cyprus. There was an intensive
campaign in 2007 against the government based on false allegations
that Turkish Cypriots on the divided Mediterranean island were sold
out by the AK Party. Even advocacy groups that have nothing to do with
foreign policy started issuing declarations against the government
that the Turks in Cyprus were left alone in their fight against the
Greek Cypriots. The fact that there are too many examples from 2007 of
this campaign shows how the junta was effective in its planning
through special ops.

2007 was also a year when Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was
shot dead outside his newspaper’s office in Þiþli in January. Since
the issue of non-Muslims in general and the Armenian genocide in
particular are sensitive topics in Turkey, it would not come as a
surprise that the junta tried to exploit these sensitivities in
Turkish society. Hopefully other documents MÝT has referred to in the
parliamentary commission can shed some light on finally resolving the
Dink murder. The same goes for the Malatya massacre case involving the
slaughter of three Christians in 2007, and the case of Father Andrea
Santoro, who was murdered in 2006 in Trabzon. In that same year,
Armenian genocide bill discussions in the US Congress further fueled
nationalist fervor in Turkey, much to the benefit of the junta’s aims,
putting more strain on the government.

The Kurdish issue to the extent it linked with the semiautonomous
Kurdistan in northern Iraq was another area in which the junta saw an
opportunity to score against the government. Starting in January 2007,
the government was subjected to an intense campaign of being too
passive when it comes to dealing with northern Iraq. The then-chief of
Turkey’s General Staff Gen. Yaþar Büyükanýt was publicly accusing
Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq of actively backing Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists, threatening a cross-border incursion.
The military was overstepping into the policy decision-making process,
creating a deep rift between the army and the government. The goal was
to create the impression that the government was simply too weak to
handle a critically important issue on the national agenda when it
resisted the idea of a special military operation into northern Iraq.
The government was able to fend off the pressure until June but was
eventually forced to cave in and allowed the military to go into
northern Iraq.

No doubt that all of these plans require the manipulation of public
opinion through the media, and the ÖKK had plenty signed up for this
job, some voluntarily and others without even knowing they were on the
hook. The whistleblower’s letter also exposes this by saying that as a
part of these plans, journalists would be urged to write false news
stories. Therefore some of the journalists accused in the coup cases
are actually co-conspirators in these hideous plans against the nation
and are now responding to charges in a court of law. They have not
performed their public duty by exposing dirty deals to the public but
instead have behaved as pens-for-hire to serve the interests of coup
mongers in Turkey. Those who are keen to advance the press freedom
issue in Turkey need to separate these bad apples from legitimate
infringement on freedom of the press cases in order to help contribute
to the further democratization of Turkey.

From: Baghdasarian

HOW DEEP ARE AZERBAIJAN-ISRAEL RELATIONS?

January 18, 2013By EurasiaNet

There has been much speculation surrounding Azerbaijan’s relations
with Israel, including reports that Israeli warplanes might use
Azerbaijani airfields as support bases during a potential attack
against Iran. The reality of the bilateral relationship is not so
dramatic, as it is pragmatic.

We must keep in mind that neither country is an essential strategic
asset for the other. From the Israeli point of view, relations
with Azerbaijan represent the latest incarnation of a ‘periphery
strategy’, under which Israel, surrounded by hostile Arab states,
reaches out to the ‘outer ring’ of non-Arab, ‘moderate’ Muslim
states. In bygone decades, Kemalist Turkey and monarchist Iran played
this role.

Today, Israel’s relations with Turkey are tense, and Iran is an
arch-enemy. Azerbaijan is now a cog in the periphery strategy. But
Baku can’t compensate for the loss of Israel’s former strategic
assets. Azerbaijan is a country with its own geopolitical
entanglements, including one that has left roughly 20 percent of its
territory under foreign occupation. Baku is not in position to supply
the type of support that would be relevant to the security challenges
that Israel faces, especially vis a vis Iran.

Some of Israel’s neoconservative allies in the United States have
dreamed about stoking separatist sentiment in northern Iran, where
there is a high concentration of ethnic Azeris. But officials in Baku
are wary of provoking Iran. They are cognizant of Iran’s capacity
to retaliate – for example, by potentially staging terrorist attacks
against the country’s energy infrastructure, or targeting American and
Israeli interests and mobilizing radical Islamists inside Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani leadership clearly does not want a war at its doorstep,
with all its unpredictable consequences. Neither does it want a full
normalization of relations with Iran. It rather seeks manageable
tension, which would allow Baku to cast itself as the West’s crucial
ally against ‘mad mullahs’ and deflect attention from its steadily
deteriorating human rights record. As far as relations with Iran
are concerned, Baku will follow its own calculations, which may well
continue to diverge from Israel’s.

>>From the Azerbaijani perspective, relations with Israel are valuable,
since Israeli officials are not bound by the US and EU embargo
on arms sales to Azerbaijan. Thus, Israel represents an important
weapons outlet amid Baku’s ongoing efforts to regain control over
the Nagorno-Karabakh territory. Indeed, Israel has sold sophisticated
military hardware and know-how to Azerbaijan – enabling Baku to
produce its own drone aircraft.

But, it is worth noting, a military build-up is not likely to secure
Azerbaijan’s strategic objective in Karabakh enclave. If Baku is ever
going to govern the territory effectively in the future, it will have
to convince Karabakh Armenians that their future is better secured
within Azerbaijan, not as a separate entity, or as a part of Armenia.

The odds on that happening are already poor. And drone production
does nothing to encourage Karabakh Armenians to accept Azerbaijani
control of the territory.

Another major factor behind Azerbaijan’s efforts to cultivate ties
with Israel is a desire among officials to gain access to the potent
pro-Israel lobby in Washington. This makes sense from Azerbaijani
perspective, since Azerbaijan seeks to counter-balance what it sees
as an undue influence of the Armenian lobby on US policy in the South
Caucasus. But Baku’s expectations in this regard are unrealistic.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a non-issue for Jewish-Americans and Israelis. And
a considerable portion of Israel’s supporters in Washington
are unwilling to confront the pro-Armenian lobby, especially when
Azerbaijan’s strategic ally, Turkey, is now an antagonist for both
Armenia and Israel.

Azerbaijan, in turn, can’t afford to alienate Muslim countries,
specifically Turkey. This is why Baku voted at the United Nations in
favor of granting an observer status to Palestine.

It should be pointed out that most Azerbaijanis are unenthused
about Baku’s ties with Israel. When Israeli officials, such as a
former minister Efraim Sneh in 2010, or, more recently, the former
ambassador to Baku, Michael Lotem, praised Azerbaijan as an “icon of
progress in the Muslim world,” it merely breeds resentment among many
Azerbaijanis, who are disaffected with the high level of corruption
and the lack of individual freedoms in their country.

This is not to say that the Azerbaijani-Israeli relations have no
future. Azerbaijan, thankfully, is largely free from the poisonous
anti-Semitism that prevails in much of the Muslim world. But a sober,
realistic assessment by both sides is needed in order to maximize the
potential of bilateral relations. For the time being, the diplomatic
agendas of both Azerbaijan and Israel diverge significantly, and
neither state seems willing to adjust those priorities in the interest
of deepening bilateral ties.

Editor’s note: Eldar Mamedov is a political adviser to the Socialists
& Democrats Group in the European Parliament, who writes in his
personal capacity.

From: Baghdasarian

25,000 CHRISTIANS BESIEGED BY MUSLIM REBELS IN HASAKA, SYRIA

GMT 1-18-2013 20:7:28
Assyrian International News Agency

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(AINA) — A number of bishops
from the al-Hasaka district in eastern Syria have put forward a plea
for the survival of 25,000 Christians, including Syriac Orthodox,
Syriac Catholics, Chaldeans and Armenians, in this city, within
which a number of evacuees have sought refuge from neighboring areas,
as reported by the Vatican’s Fides news agency on Thursday.

According to the agency, the testimonies cited by the bishops indicate
“a number of roadblocks” on the roads, set up by armed groups,
especially militiamen from the al-Nasrah Front. Add to that, they
said, gangs are deliberately conducting robberies, kidnappings and
attacks even within the city.

The agency additionally quoted one of the priests from al-Hasaka
saying, “That every day around 3pm a type of curfew is applied,
since armed groups are roaming the streets.”

He also stressed that, “kidnapping operations are being conducted,
accompanied at times by requests for the payment of ransoms, and in
recent days, two brothers from the Bishr family and two youths from
the Afram family were murdered in the street, and Christian youths
are being threatened and are intimidated by terrorist acts.”

On their part, several humanitarian organizations have announced that,
“It is impossible to deliver aid to al-Hasaka, because it is very
dangerous and also the minimum security requirements are unavailable.”

Translated from Arabic by AINA.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA’S IT DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT NEEDS TO BE REVIEWED – EXPERT

news.am
January 18, 2013 | 12:56

YEREVAN. – The 2008-2018 development concept of Armenia’s Information
Technology (IT) sector needs to be reviewed, Enterprise Incubator
Foundation Executive Director Bagrat Yengibaryan said during a press
conference on Friday.

In his words, it is impossible to make a ten-year forecast in the IT
sector because the latter develops and changes in a dynamic fashion.

Nonetheless, as per Yengibaryan, the interim objectives will probably
be either fulfilled to a greater extent or are already fulfilled to
a larger scope.

In his turn, Armenian Union of Information Technology Enterprises
Executive Director Karen Vardanyan likewise recorded that there is
a significant progress in Armenia’s IT sector over the course of the
past five years. But he added that the development concept projects
toward establishing IT villages and venture funds in the country are
being materialized more slowly than expected.

From: Baghdasarian

HELSINKI CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLY VANADZOR OFFICE RESPONDS TO ARMENIAN MILITARY PROSECUTOR’S REPORT

tert.am
21:12 ~U 18.01.13

The Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office has issued a statement
indicating that Armenian Military Prosecutor Gevorg Kostanyan’s
report on the number of deaths in Armenia’s Armed Forces contains
inaccurate information.

The number of deaths has actually increased rather than decreased.

“This is one more attempt, by showing percentage, to produce an
impression of a lower number of military crimes in 2012.

On Thursday, Armenia’s Military Prosecutor Gevorg Kostanyan reported a
serious decrease in the number of deaths in Armenia’s army last year –
29 cases, with nine servicemen killed by the enemy.

“Unfortunately, the number of deaths in Armenia’s Armed Forces
increased – 48 in 2012 against 39 in 2011. Incidents with lethal
outcomes increased as well – 39 in 2012 against 36 in 2011. The number
of deaths as a result of ceasefire violations is, according to our
information, 12,” says the statement.

“In fact, the human rights situation, violations of discipline and
improper investigation of deaths in Armenia’s Armed Forces remain a
serious concern,” the statement says.

Armenia’s Supreme Commander-in-Chief Serzh Sargsyan, Minister of
Defense Seyran Ohanyan and law-enforcement agencies must show a most
serious approach to each case of violation of human rights, response by
NGOs and mass media and public concern and implement radical reforms.

According to the statement, Armenia’s minister of defense must
present annual reports on human rights in Armenia’s army to the
Armenian National Assembly – especially on the causes of deaths,
violations of discipline, medical service, measures by the Ministry
of Defense and results.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: WE’LL REALIZE MILITARY COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA “ON PRIVILEGED TERMS”

Friday 18 January 2013 14:51

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan said today
that the interstate agreement due to be signed with Russian Federation
will allow realizing military-technical cooperation between the two
countries “on privileged terms”.

Seyran Ohanyan said that “our military and military-technical
cooperation with Russia is on a high level and it allowed us to make
some changes in our interstate agreements, Mediamax reports.

“Back in January 2003, the intergovernmental agreement on
Armenia-Russia military-technical cooperation was signed. The
process of improving and deepening our works in military-technical
area allowed our country’s leadership to instruct enhancing the
cooperation from the intergovernmental level up to state level. The
signing of Armenia-Russia interstate agreement is now worked out and
is in the final phase of discussions”, said Seyran Ohanyan.

Mediamax recalls that Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his consent
to the Russian government’s proposal to hold talks on signing an
agreement on military-technical cooperation development with Armenia
a few days ago.

From: Baghdasarian

SAAKASHVILI STRONGLY CRITICIZES IVANISHVILI FOR THE STATEMENT MADE IN ARMENIA

Friday 18 January 2013 09:15

Mikhail Saakashvili and Bidzina Ivanishvili

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili stated that
the resumption of the railway communication through Abkhazia is in
the interests of Russia and the advancement of the issue without the
context of de-occupation is “a criminal, anti-state and anti-Georgian”
act.

The Georgian President said this commenting on the statement of
Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili made in Yerevan on January 17,
Civil.ge reports.

Mikhail Saakashvili said that “the statement contains some elements
and all of them are very alarming”. “First of all, the statement
doesn’t consider the geopolitical and political strategic interests
of Georgia at all”, stated Saakashili.

According to him, after the launch of the new railway line of
Baku-Akhalkalaki-Kars which will link Azerbaijan with Turkey through
Georgia, Georgia won’t need to open communication through Abkhazia.

According to Saakashvili, Baku-Akhalkalaki-Kars railway line will link
Asia with Europe and will compete with Russian Trans-Siberian Railway.

“Naturally, we want good relations with Armenia. We have done much
to make way for Armenian cargo”, he stated adding that the opening
of border checkpoint of Verin Lars served to this end. “Armenia’s
isolation have never been in Georgia’s interests and we have never
supported it. But good relations with Armenia is one thing but
realization of the strategic plans of the occupant – is another”,
said Saakashvili.

Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili said in Yerevan January 17 that the
resumption of the communication across Abkhazia is directly linked
to the settlement of Georgian-Russian relations. He added that the
Georgian side is interested in earliest decision on resumption of
the operation of the Abkhazian sector of the railway.

At the same time, the Georgian Prime Minister noted that the issues
in relations between Georgia and Russia are still unsettled.

“There are no issues between Georgia and Armenia. We had serious
problems with Russia which still remain. We hope and make efforts to
restore relations with Russia”, said the Georgian PM.

Bidzina Ivanishvili answered the question on prospects of resumption
of the railway communication across Abkhazia in his exclusive interview
to Mediamax on January 15 as well. Answering the question on Tbilisi’s
readiness to discuss the prospect before the political settlement of
the Abkhazian problem, he said:

“We are always ready for discussion of both problematic and promising
issues. It’s more important that all the sides involved in the
process were ready. We are in nonstandard conditions and the search
for innovative approaches to settlement of the current problematic
issues is needed”.

From: Baghdasarian