Author: Hovik Karapetian

Spain and Morocco have arrested 14 people in a joint operation targeting suspected recruiters for the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, the reports.

The arrests were made in suburbs of Madrid and in various Moroccan cities.

Those arrested are suspected of involvement in a network to send fighters to areas of Syria and Iraq under IS control.

On Friday a Moroccan who had lived in Spain was arrested following a foiled attack on a high-speed French train.

Ayoub El-Khazzani, 25, originally from Tetouan in northern Morocco, arrived in Spain in 2007 and lived there for seven years, in Madrid and Algeciras, before moving to France.

He is suspected of having had contact with radical Islamists and had been put on a list marked as “potentially dangerous” by Spanish authorities. They flagged this up to French counterparts in February 2014.

Spanish counter-terrorism sources quoted on Monday by the Spanish Cadena Ser radio network said that some 800 people with a radical Islamist profile were in Europe and ready to strike, having returned from Syria and Iraq.

The latest arrests took place in the San Martin de la Vega district of Madrid, and in the Moroccan cities of Fez, Casablanca, Nador, al-Hoceima and Driouech.

The Spanish interior ministry said the operation was ongoing, without giving specific details.

Both Spain and Morocco have arrested dozens of suspected radical Islamists in recent years.

Islamic State fighters have overrun large parts of Syria and Iraq si

Arthur Abraham retained his WBO super middleweight world title, when he scored a six round stoppage against Robert Stieglitz in their forth meeting.  Stieglitz  suffered a flash knockdown earlier in the fight.

It was the third win for WBO title holder Abraham from the high-profile quartet of meetings and proves ultimately that Abraham is the better operator of the two.

The first fought in August 2012, with Abraham winning the WBO title with a twelve round unanimous decision. Stieglitz got revenge in March 2013 by stopping Abraham in four rounds due to an eye injury.

They met for a third time a year later, with Abraham scoring a twelve round knockdown to clinch a twelve round split decision and reclaim his WBO crown.

Greece scrambled fighter jets to chase off six Turkish aircraft trespassing into Greek airspace, defense officials said, SputinkNews reports.

Turkish planes, flying in a formation, violated Greek airspace 20 times on Wednesday, officials said, cited by the local Kathimerini newspaper.

Turkish aircraft reportedly crossed into Greece in the northeastern, central and southeastern Aegean Sea, the body of water dividing the two countries’ mainlands. At least two of the fighter jets were armed, officials said.

Syrian rebels led by Islamist groups have begun a massive assault that aims to take full control of the northern city of Aleppo, the BBC reports.

Rebels fired hundreds of rockets and missiles into government-held areas in a multi-district attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

It said the Syrian military had returned fire and launched air raids.

Analysts say the fall of Syria’s second city would be a major setback for President Bashar al-Assad.

The UK-based Observatory said that four civilians had been killed and more than 70 wounded in the rebel offensive, while five rebel fighters were killed in clashes with government forces in western Aleppo.

As part of the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Committee for the Defense of the Armenian Cause (CDCA) has organized a roundtable discussion at the National Assembly of France, Nouvelles d’Armenie reports.

The discussion titled “Justice and Reparation for the Armenian people” features His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Geat House of Cilicia, Bruno Le Roux, President of the Socialist Group in the National Assembly, a number of prominent public and political figures.

“Technical problems with the overseas passport and visa systems have resulted in the unfortunate cancellation of some U.S. visa interview appointments and the delay of many potential visa appointments, the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan said in a statement.

The Embassy said they remain committed to facilitating legitimate travel and have therefore decided to open on Saturday, June 27, 2015 on an exceptional basis to conduct visa interviews.

The Embassy urgse business, tourist, student, and other nonimmigrant visa applicants to visit to take advantage of these appointments outside of the normal working hours, to schedule or re-schedule a visa appointment.

Armenia’s Hrachik Babayan, 18, came 5^th in the final of the 10m Air Rifle event at Baku Games.

He earned 629.3 points, setting a new European youth record in the qualification round.

The result ensures an Olympic berth for Armenia at Rio 2016.

In a statement released on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis calls on Turkey, the United States and Israel to recognize the Genocide, the reports. 

The Massachusetts Board of Rabbis reaches out in solidarity and sorrow to Armenians everywhere on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. We acknowledge the pain carried through generations of a people decimated, the psychic scars transmitted, the truncated branches of family trees yet to regenerate. We hear the echoes of pleading voices long stilled that call us to remember, to learn, to witness. We call for universal recognition of what happened on the plains of Anatolia, the 1915-23 atrocities carried out by the Ottoman government. Only truth shall be surety for the timeless cry of “Never Again.”

Details unfold as a scroll of lamentation, these we remember and pour our hearts out. We remember the hundreds of Armenian intellectuals, the writers, artists, doctors and lawyers, the communal and political leaders arrested and executed on April 24, 1915. We remember the desert death marches, the killing squads, and the concentration camps. We remember the 1.5 million Armenians killed of some 2 million in their ancestral homeland prior to World War I, mourning the destruction and exile of an ancient people. We remember the use of trains for deportation to death, cattle cars packed with human beings, portent of genocide to come. We remember the heroic efforts of American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, the missionaries and aid workers who cried out to the world for response. We remember the continuing denials and the shame of refusing to recognize what happened, to call it for what it was.

We remember words that challenge silence and disallow denial. Words of witness by Ambassador Morgenthau, laying bare the plan by its architect, Talat Pasha: “It is no use for you to argue…we have already disposed of three quarters of the Armenians…we have got to finish with them…” Igniting the flames of one genocide from the embers of another, Adolph Hitler, his memory be blotted out, cynically asked, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” We honor with pride and humility the work of Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew who did speak, who coined the word “genocide” in 1943, his long-held anguish for Armenians merging in the midst of the Holocaust with anguish for his own people.

We take to heart Elie Wiesel’s lament for the “double killing” of Armenians that happens through silence. Challenging Turkey to acknowledge what happened, it is our challenge, as well. Recognition of another’s suffering and willingness to describe it accurately should never be a matter of political expediency. The prevention of future genocides rests with our willingness to acknowledge those of the past. As the Holocaust should not be subsumed within the Second World War, neither should the Armenian Genocide be subsumed within the First World War.

We call on Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Heirs to the Ottomans, Turkey’s burden is also an opportunity to insure that what happened 100 years ago will no longer define the relationship today between descendants of the victims and descendants of the perpetrators. We call on the United States to unequivocally recognize the Armenian Genocide, affirming our commitment to justice and giving meaning to annual expressions of condolence and sorrow. We call on Israel to unequivocally recognize the Armenian Genocide, giving voice to the moral legacy of its own emergence from the ashes of the Holocaust.

Toward healing among communities and peoples:

We call on the American Jewish community through its official organizations to unequivocally recognize the Armenian Genocide, to apologize for past reticence, to reach out from heart to heart.

We call on local Jewish communities to learn about the Armenian Genocide and to reach out to their Armenian neighbors, building friendship and cooperation.

We call on all people to refrain from manipulating past horrors to demonize members of any people or faith today, Christian, Muslim, or Jew.

In the midst of Anatolia where the Biblical Mount Ararat rises, Noah’s ark found rest, a dove with its olive branch still waiting to alight. To give rest to the dead and peace to the living, a rainbow promise of never again, the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis calls for universal recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

The sparkling form of Borussia Dortmund’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan didn’t go unnoticed by the users on a dramatic final day in Germany’s top flight last weekend.

The Armenian Footballer of the Year capped an engrossing individual performance with a delightful goal – a wonderfully executed lob over Koen Casteels – in an equally captivating 3-2 win over TSG 1899 Hoffenheim that clinched the Yellow-Blacks’ place in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Europa League.
Mkhitaryan took 64 per cent of the weekly poll, beating FC Bayern München’s Bastian Schweinsteiger into second place (23 per cent).

“If Turkey acknowledged the genocide, it would not lose anything. It would become a country that faced its dark history,” editor-in-chief of Turkey’s Agos newspaper Yetvart Danzikyan said in an interview with .

“In the government’s view, Turkey’s ancestors would never conduct a genocide – other countries do. What happened to Armenians fits with the definition of genocide. The fact that there was no defined concept of genocide in 1915 doesn’t mean it wasn’t one. No one actually blames Turks or Turkey as a country; the state itself internalizes it. Nobody is saying Turks or Turkey’s ancestors did it. However, the Committee of Union and Progress government of the time planned the genocide and carried it out. This is what we are saying. It wasn’t an aspect of the war going on back then as the government claims, it was planned. Name by name, district by district, Armenians were taken away. Even the number of Armenians to stay and to be taken away were clear,” Danzikyan said.

“Facing these would put Turkey in another [higher] league of countries in the world. Turkey should stop seeing the issue as an insult to the state, religion, and nation,” he added.

Speaking about the messages of condolences that government officials have sent to Armenians in the last two years, Danzikyan said: “It is a positive development. However, if you look at the content of the messages, you will see that the Turkish government wants 1915 to be memorialized the way it defines it. They refer to the war conditions of the time, implying responsibility also on Armenians, etc. As long as Turkish Armenians are okay with these arguments, they are the government’s friends. Others are the foes.”

“The messages are also unbalanced. One day [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan criticizes the commemoration ceremony in Yerevan. The next day he releases a message and has it read at the Armenian Patriarchate, sending his condolences to Armenians. He also changed the commemoration of the Gallipoli battle to April 24, making it a rival ceremony. He was in Canakkale himself [at the Gallipoli commemoration]; his message is at the patriarchate. What are we supposed to do with this?”