Author: Chatinian Lara

Belgium have cancelled next week’s friendly against Portugal in Brussels after Tuesday’s attacks in the city, which killed more than 30 people, the BBC reports.

The Belgian Football Association says the city’s authorities asked for Tuesday’s match to be called off for “security reasons and precaution”.

The national team cancelled a training session in the immediate aftermath of the suicide and bomb attacks.

Captain Vincent Kompany was “horrified and revolted” by the incidents.

“I wish for Brussels to act with dignity. We are all hurting, yet we must reject hate and its preachers. As hard as it may be,” he wrote on Twitter.

Next week’s match, due to be played at the King Baudouin Stadium, is the second Belgium friendly in succession that has not gone ahead as scheduled.

In November, their match against Spain in Brussels was called off following the Paris atrocities, which killed 130 people.

Netherlands’ match against France in Amsterdam – 108 miles away from Brussels – will go ahead as planned on Friday.

Senator Joe Bullock of Western Australia has delivered a speech in Australia’s Senate, blasting the anti-Armenian stance on Nagorno-Karabakh recently expressed by his fellow Federal Australian politician, MP for Cowan, Luke Simpkins, the Armenian National Committee of Australia reports.

Simpkins, the Chair of the Azerbaijan Australia Parliamentary Friendship Group, recently travelled to Azerbaijan as a guest of the petro-Dictatorship, and has since refused to meet with the Armenian side of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Despite this unbalanced approach, and despite the Australian media questioning his relations with Azerbaijan and his other activities abroad, Simpkins has remained steadfast in what the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) has called his “assumed role as the chief communicator of the Azeri propaganda in Australia’s Parliament”.

On the first 2016 sitting day of Parliament, Bullock spoke in Australia’s Senate, recalling his late-2015 meeting with an ANC Australia delegation headed by Republic of Nagorno Karabakh MP, Davit Ishkhanyan.

He proceeded to call out Simpkins’s “uncritical support for Azerbaijan”, sighting the history of the region of Nagorno-Karabakh and why this democracy does not deserve the treatment the West Australian MP is serving. In his speech, Bullock also acknowledged the historical reality of the Armenian Genocide, as well as the rights to self-determination for the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh.

After highlighting the historical background of how Nagorno Karabakh was always Armenian, and explaining the oppressive Azeri regime forcing the Armenians of the region to vote for Independence in a referendum, Bullock said:

“To speak, as the Member for Cowan [Simpkins] has repeatedly done in the other place [House of Representatives], of the ‘illegal occupiers of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan’ is ludicrous. How can a people who have lived continuously in this region for centuries illegally occupy their own land?”

Bullock added: “Furthermore, such uncritical support for Azerbaijan’s absurd demand that this brave little nation commit suicide, dismantle its 25-year-old democracy and hand over its people to the tender mercies of the Azerbaijan government can only serve to strengthen the intransigence of the Azerbaijanis in refusing to recognise the reality of Nagorno-Karabakh’s nationhood.”

“As Nobel Peace prize winner Andrei Sakharov said in November 1989, shortly before his death: ‘For Azerbaijan the issue of Karabakh is a matter of ambition; for the Armenians of Karabakh, it is a matter of life or death’.”

Bullock concluded his powerful address by saying: “[Nazi Germany Propaganda Minister] Joseph Goebbels may have notoriously preferred guns to butter, but the Australian government needs to take care that its efforts to increase exports of butter to Azerbaijan do not result in the Azerbaijanis more confidently turning their guns onto the brave citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

ANC Australia Executive Administrator, Arin Markarian welcomed the speech made by Senator Bullock in the Senate.

“It is refreshing that we have legislators in Australia like Senator Bullock, who received a visit from an Armenian delegation, then researched the issues we advocated, before reaching a conclusion on his own, which he has now communicated to Parliament,” said Markarian.

“He has shone a light on the plight of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh, and advocated for their rights to self-determination on what is their native land.”

Markarian concluded: “We commend Senator Bullock for this, and for leading Australian political discourse on this issue back to the moral high ground, like Mr. John Alexander has done before him in the House of Representatives.”

With the end of sanctions on Iran, the country’s regional economic influence will begin to rebound. The adjacent South Caucasus region, encompassing Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, is one area that Tehran will target for greater cooperation, reaching out to make deals on trade and energy, says  a new report published by

According to the study, the Jan. 17 end of sanctions on Iran will have important consequences worldwide, changing the state of play in the ongoing conflicts in Syria and Yemen. In the South Caucasus, however, Tehran’s reemergence will have particularly sweeping effects. “For some time, Iran has lagged far behind its regional rivals in terms of economic and military influence, even as it has become increasingly interested in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia for their transit and energy possibilities.”

“Iran has a number of reasons for increasing its regional involvement. Europe is trying to diversify away from Russian natural gas, and Iran wants to seize the opportunity to take over these markets. But it needs access to the South Caucasus first. Tehran recently expressed interest in using existing infrastructure such as the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, which connect the Caspian and Mediterranean seas. Another option would be reaching Georgia’s Black Sea ports of Batumi and Poti through Armenia. Iranian officials are already courting Yerevan for that purpose,” the report reads.

Exporting energy through Turkey would be more convenient for Iran, but difficult relations between the countries on issues including how to end the Syrian civil war ultimately make the Armenian route more viable. So far, there has been talk of building a $3.7 billion railway and of extending a natural gas pipeline between Armenia and Iran. However, that plan, too, is complicated for Tehran, because Moscow has repeatedly tried to stall or become a shareholder in major infrastructure projects so as not to lose its influence in Armenia.

According to Stratfor, post-sanctions Iran will also try to become more involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.  On Jan 22, Iran’s Foreign Ministry offered to mediate the conflict, as a possible resolution to the standoff would make it easier for Tehran to implement its infrastructure projects in the region. “Tehran’s involvement will also undermine Russia’s dominant position in the negotiation process. Moscow could theoretically cooperate with Tehran, but considering how opposed Russia is to any Iranian moves into the Armenian and Georgian energy sectors, this scenario is unlikely. On the other hand, as other world powers try to increase their involvement in the conflict, Moscow could see Tehran as a valuable partner to counter foreign influence.”

Indeed, despite the disputes over influence in the South Caucasus, Russia and Iran have shown they can cooperate. In December, both managed to sign a memorandum to synchronize their electricity transmissions systems with those of Georgia and Armenia. And both are keenly aware of the larger threats to their interests.

“While Iran will certainly become more active in the region politically, and while it will increase trade with every South Caucasus country, it will encounter significant obstacles along the way. Russia is unlikely to loosen its grip on Armenia by allowing Iran’s large energy infrastructure projects to move forward — unless Iran allows significant Russian participation in them. And though Tehran will try to re-engage in Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia will limit or possibly block its involvement. Nonetheless, on a range of issue, the two have enough common ground to work together,” the report concludes.

On the occasion of Army Day, President Serzh Sargsyan along with the President of NKR Bako Sahakian, His Holiness Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II and the highest leadership of the Republic visited today the Erablur Military Pantheon and paid tribute to the memory of the Armenian sons who sacrificed their lives for Armenia’s Independence.

The Azerbaijani side undertook provocative actions at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan last night.

The rival used artillery weapons of different caliber, 60 and 82mm mortars and HAN-17 grenades as it fired more than 600 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The adversary also undertook an infringement attempt in the southern direction of the line of contact on January 26, at about 04:30. The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army were quick to spot the advancement and force them back to their initial positions.

The Defense Army incurred no losses as a result of the exchange of fire.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army confidently continue with their military duty all along the line of contact.

Photo: AFP

 

Some 400 people in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya need to be urgently evacuated for medical treatment, says UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien, the BBC reports.

After briefing the UN Security Council on the crisis in the rebel-held town near Damascus, he warned that those people could die.

Earlier, an aid convoy brought food to 40,000 town residents who have been under government siege for six months.

The UN says it has received credible reports of people dying of starvation.

Simultaneously, aid lorries entered two towns besieged by rebel forces in the northern province of Idlib under a deal between the warring parties.

The situation in Foah and Kefraya is also said to be extremely dire, with an estimated 20,000 people trapped there since March.

The arrival of the aid was delayed until both sets of lorries were ready to enter the towns.

French police have arrested a man in the Paris region as part of the investigation into the 13 November attacks in the city, sources say, the BBC reports.

Some 2,700 raids have been conducted since the attacks, with 360 people placed under house arrest across France, the AFP news agency reports.

Police have also arrested two people in northern France suspected of supplying weapons to one of the gunmen in the January attacks, reports say.

They were taken in for questioning.

Photo: Reuters

 

A suspected US-led coalition air strike has killed four Syrian military personnel, according to a monitoring group.

The strike took place in Deir al-Zour province, which is largely held by the jihadist group Islamic State, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

If confirmed, it would be the first coalition strike to have killed Syrian government forces.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory said 13 military personnel were also wounded.

The strike hit part of the Saeqa military camp, near the town of Ayyash, it said.

The IS controls most of the province, including almost all of its capital, Deir al-Zour.

A separate strike believed to have been carried out by the coalition in the city overnight killed a woman and two of her children, the Syrian Observatory said.

Deir al-Zour province links Islamic State’s de facto capital in Raqqa with territory controlled by the group in Iraq. The area’s oilfields are a major source of revenue for IS.

A male suicide bomber hit a procession of Shi’ite Muslims in Nigeria’s Kano state as they walked to the city of Zaria to pay homage to their founder in the country, security sources and a Shi’ite leader said, Reuters reports.

Muhammad Turi said that 21 people had been killed and more wounded. Police said there were casualties but they could not confirm a figure.

The blast went off at around 2 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) near the village of Dakozoye outside the town of Garum Mallam, south of Nigeria’s second city Kano.

“It was in a bush area, on a farmland along the highway, our concern is to make everywhere safe. The bomb was made of high calibre explosive,” police commissioner Muhammad Musa Katsina said.

The commissioner said he did not know who was behind the bombing.

Suspicion is likely to fall on Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which frequently uses suicide bombers to hit soft targets like places of worship, markets and bus stations. Since losing most of the territory it controlled this year, it has returned to guerilla tactics and pledged allegiance to Islamic State based in Syria and Iraq.

Last week, two female suicide bombers hit a mobile phone market in Kano, killing at least 14 people and wounding more than 100 others.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Nov. 24 he would not visit Turkey as planned on Nov. 25 following Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter jet.

“The president clearly stated that this could not but affect Russian-Turkish relations. In this context, it was decided to cancel the meeting between Russia’s and Turkey’s ministers of foreign affairs, which was planned for tomorrow [November 25] in Istanbul,” Sergei Lavrov said.

Lavrov also advised Russians not to visit Turkey and said the threat of terrorism there was the no less than in Egypt, where a bomb attack brought down a Russian passenger plane last month.

“We need to underline the fact that terrorist threats are growing in Turkey,” he added.