Author: Christine Harutyunian

 

 

 

Ankara’s policy of supporting terrorism could not but work against Turkey itself one day, expert of Turkish studies Tiran Lokmagyozyan says.

“Although the masterminds behind the blast are not yet known, Turkey will try to use this in its anti-Kurdish struggle,” the expert told reporters today and added that “there are all prerequisites exist for making the conclusion.

He reminded that the authorities used the previous blast in Istanbul to incite the anti-Kurdish sentiments, while the attack turned out to be organized by the Islamic State.

According to Lokmagyozyan, the first blast in Ankara that left 100 people killed obviously plaid into the hands of the authorities, as it was directed against participants of an anti-Erdogan rally. He added, however, that the situation is different with the two subsequent blasts, probably coming from a different side.

“Those weaken Erdogan’s positions, because some people manage to organize such things in downtown Ankara, in the neighborhood of administrative buildings,” he said.

The expert noted that “in times of trouble Armenians face double threats – both for being Armenian and because of the unsafe situation in the country.” The concerns were later , editor-in-chief of the Istanbul-based Jamanak daily.

Governor General of Tehran province Hossein Hashemi said on Saturday that two free economic zones in southern Tehran and industrial zone of hi-tech are ready for joint venture investment with Armenia, IRNA reports. 

He made the remarks in a meeting with the Armenian Ambassador to Iran Artashes Tomanian.
He said that Tehran-Yerevan economic ties have always been effective for economic development of the two countries.

The official noted that Tehran Economic Free Zone has recently launched its activities in the vicinity of Imam Khomeini International Airport.

According to Hashemi, the entrance and exit of capital is free in Tehran Free Economic Zone and the place is the best corridor linking the West and East.

Underlining the need for promoting tourism relations between Iran and Armenia, Hashemi said that developing ties in cultural fields and holding joint exhibits and chambers of commerce can pave the way for further cooperation.

Armenian envoy, for his part, hailed Iran-Armenia current level of ties, saying that his country’s embassy in Tehran will make the Iranian investors familiar with Armenian economy.

‘Tehran province is of high significance for us and we will display our products in Tehran International Exhibition,’ Tomanian said.

Referring to the two great international developments regarding Iran, he said that nuclear deal and lifting the sanctions and the democratic elections held in Iran on Febraury 26 were important issues, displaying Iranian nation’s resolve to the world.

Lifting the sanctions paved the way for Armenia’s trade with Iran in different fields of agriculture, technology and education.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan will leave for Brussels on March 9 to participate in the sitting of the North-Atlantic Council in Armenia+28 format.

Ministers Nalbandian and Ohanyan are expected to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

As first lady during Ronald Reagan’s eight years in the White House, she was known as the “Just say no” spokeswoman of anti-drug campaigns, and as a fierce protector of her husband, both personally and politically. When Ronald Reagan was shot in a 1981 assassination attempt, Nancy Reagan never left the hospital where the president was treated until he was released, according to Nancy Reagan’s press secretary, Sheila Tate.

After she and her husband left Washington, she became his protector again as he struggled with Alzheimer’s disease until his death in 2004.

Her official White House biography quotes her as saying, “My life really began when I married my husband.”

Photo: AFP

 

Almost 100 rebel factions have agreed to respect an imminent cessation of hostilities in Syria, the main Syrian opposition group has said, the BBC reports.

The High Negotiations Committee said Free Syrian Army factions and the armed opposition had signed up to the temporary truce from midnight Saturday.

World powers agreed on 12 February that a truce would start within a week but that deadline passed and scepticism had lingered over the new plan.

Warring parties in Syria were meant to make their intentions known by midday (10:00 GMT) Friday ahead of the pause in fighting.

Announcing the intentions of rebel factions, the HNC said the Syrian government and its allies must not use the “proposed text to continue the hostile operations against the opposition factions under the excuse of fighting terrorism”.

Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Tigran Sargsyan had a meeting today with the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Issues related to the current development of the Eurasian Economic Union, deepening of economic relations with third countries and the common strategy of the EEU member states on the global market were discussed.

Nursultan Nazarbayev noted that Tigran Sargsyan has assumed the presidency of the Board at a hard time for world economy and added that “it’s difficult to find ways of growth under these conditions.”

The President said, however, he has no doubts connected with the ultimate usefulness of the Union, especially considering that a number of countries are willing to join EEU or create free trade zones.

The President of Kazakhstan noted that the membership in the integration union envisages not only the use of opportunities, but also the need to invest in its development.

Chairman of the EEU Board voiced confidence that Kazakhstan would give a new impulse to the development of the Union during its presidency of the EEU.

Armenian international Aras Ozbiliz was officially presented as Rayo Vallecano player today.

“I’m feeling better every day,” Ozbiliz said, adding that he hopes to help the team stay in La Liga.

“I knew the philosophy of Rayo Vallecano game and Paco Jemez and that made me come,” he said.

Photo: AP

 

A bus has crashed into a truck in northern Ghana, killing at least 53 people, police say, the BBC reports.

The Metro Mass Transit coach reportedly collided head-on with a cargo truck carrying tomatoes near the town of Kintampo on Wednesday evening.

Regional police chief Maxwell Atingane told Reuters news agency that many passengers died at the scene.

He said police were investigating the cause of the crash, believed to be one of the worst in many years.

Joy News, a Ghanaian website, reported that a passenger told police that the bus had been experiencing brake problems.

At least 23 people are being treated at a local hospital.

The coach was full of passengers and travelling north from Kumasi, the second largest city after Accra, the capital.

AP – Backed by relentless Russian airstrikes, Syrian troops and allied militiamen on Wednesday pushed deeper into a major rebel stronghold in the northwestern province of Latakia, a day after seizing a key rebel-held town in the strategic region overlooking the coast, the government and opposition activists said.

The insurgents in the opposition-held area near the Turkish border were collapsing after the town of Salma fell to government loyalists late Tuesday. Salma’s fall marked one of the most significant military victories by the Syrian military since Russia began airstrikes in the country last September to shore up President Bashar Assad’s forces.

Later Wednesday, the Free Syrian Army and 33 other factions and rebel groups issued a statement saying they would reject scheduled peace talks in Geneva later this month unless humanitarian conditions mentioned in a U.N. resolution for Syria are fulfilled.

The groups — including the powerful Army of Islam — said that clauses specified in the resolution that call for allowing humanitarian aid to populations in need of it, must first be met.

“We reject going ahead with any negotiations before implementation of humanitarian clauses in U.N. Security Council resolution 2254 begins,” the statement said.

Syria’s main political group in exile, the Syrian National Coalition, said the statement was not final and did not mean negotiations were completely off.

“I think it’s good for them to use such a statement to put some pressure on the Russian or Iranians to push Assad to start implementing confidence building measures,” said SNC vice president Hisham Marwah.

The U.N. has been urging the belligerents in Syria’s five-year-conflict to the negotiating table on Jan. 25 in an effort to find a resolution to a civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced half the country’s population. High-level U.S., Russian, U.N. and other diplomats are meeting behind closed doors in Geneva to discuss efforts to those talks.

Later, the International Committee of the Red Cross urged all side to end sieges being carried out across the country because of “because of overwhelming humanitarian needs.”

“The appeal comes after access was granted earlier this week to three towns in the country which have been under siege for months. The populations in all three areas were found to be living in appalling conditions,” ICRC said.

Meanwhile, fighting inside Syria on Wednesday saw government troops seizing the villages of Mrouniyah and Marj Kawkah near Salma as they continued their advances in the region, aided by immense Russian firepower.

Salma, part of mountainous chains near the border with Turkey known as Jabal al-Akrad and Jabal al-Turkmen, has been under rebel control for the past three years.

The town, where members of Assad’s Alawite minority sect once co-existed with majority Sunni Muslims, overlooks the largely Alawite coast and is about 12 kilometers (seven miles) away from the Turkish border. Turkey is a key supporter of insurgents in the area, which is mostly inhabited by Syrian Turkmen, an ethnic minority with close ties to Turkey.

“Whoever controls Salma gains control all those surrounding areas which it overlooks,” said Zakariya Ahmad, an opposition activist in the nearby Idlib province.

He said the town fell after 93 days of fighting and daily barrel bombs and airstrikes. He said activists in the region had reported 92 airstrikes believed to be Russian on Salma in the last 24 hours before it was fully seized by government troops.

“It was hell on earth,” he said.

Salma’s recapture further improves Assad’s position ahead of the planned peace talks, the latest in a string of military achievements by the government recently, supported by Russian air power and Lebanon’s Shiite militant Hezbollah group.

Photo: Flickr/ UK Ministry of Defence

 

Turkish laboratories are processing Afghan opium into heroin for deliveries to Europe, the director of Russia’s Federal Narcotics Control Service said Tuesday, reports.

Earlier on Tuesday, Viktor Ivanov said that Russian and Afghan drug police confiscated more than 600 kilograms (over 1,300 pounds) of opium in the province of Baglan in December in a joint operation.

“The cargo traveled along the route of Badakhshan-Doshi-Bamiyan-Herat, then further through Iran and into Turkey, where the opium was processed in well-equipped laboratories … into high quality heroin, and then was to be sent to Europe and Russia,” Ivanov said during an anti-narcotics committee meeting.

the Islamic State is receiving between $200 million and $500 million annually from smuggling Afghan heroin into Europe, he said.

“According to our figures, the amount of revenue could be from $200 to $500 million annually,” Viktor Ivanov told journalists, adding that Turkey was used as a transit country for the deadly drug.