Author: Jagharian Tania

A Turkish prosecutor issued a decision of non-prosecution in the investigation regarding an alleged assassination plot against Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) Armenian lawmaker Garo Paylan.

The suspect, notorious mafia leader Allatin Çakıcı’s lawyer Sinan İnce, confessed their assassination plan against Paylan on social media in 2022. The message read “Mustafa Levent Göktaş! In 2016, you were going to have a gun smuggled into the Parliament to shoot Garo Paylan. You were going to show the instigator as Alaattin Çakıcı and the perpetrator as Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). You made me do the plan, a parliamentary advisor made you stop. Who did you collaborate with afterward? Who punched Republican People’s Party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and why?”

After the post, an investigation was launched against İnce and retired colonel Levent Göktaş who was a suspect in the assassination of academic Necip Hablemitoğlu.

Referring to Paylan, İnce also said on social media on Aug. 18, 2022, that “We didn’t want to make you a hero. Otherwise, we would have knocked you down while you were walking in the Parliament. Do not make yourself a victim by saying ‘I survived by chance.’” 

Nonetheless, the prosecutor issued a decision of non-prosecution without even taking the suspects’ statement, Gökçer Tahincioğlu from the online news platform T24 reported on April 7.

This picture shows İnce (L) and Göktaş (R).

In the decision, the prosecutor stated that there was no police record of Göktaş and İnce being “members of illegal organizations” and the Parliament officials did not find any CCTV footage of İnce entering the building with a gun.

In Lonely Plan-It, we take you step by step through how we put together some of the most complicated travel adventures. Here, travel writer and outdoors enthusiast Anna Richards explains how she hiked the Armenian section of the under-the-radar Transcaucasian Trail. 

I knew very little about Armenia before deciding to hike the Transcaucasian Trail (TCT), which winds hundreds of miles through this under-explored country. When I told friends of my plans, most knew little more than the scraps I did – a turbulent, tragic recent history; some vague connection to the Kardashians.

But what I found there simply amazed me: millennia-old monasteries, vast volcanic plateaus and rust-colored gorges that crumbled like breadcrumbs as you hiked them. 

The full TCT spans 932 miles (1500km) across Georgia and Armenia. A separate section is in progress to cross Azerbaijan, which would bring the full trail to almost 1900 miles (3000km). Unfortunately, due to current border conflicts, linking the two sections is a far-off goal. 

Totaling 516 miles (832km), the Armenian segment of the TCT opened to the public this year. I was one of the guinea pigs that got to beta-test it in 2022 ⁠– although the distance I covered over four weeks (360 miles / 580km) made me feel more like a hamster on a wheel. 

Some numbers for context: the USA’s Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) issues more than 7000 hiker permits a year. Around 3000 thru-hikers attempt the Appalachian Trail annually. And in 2022, fewer than 100 hikers completed a multiday section of the TCT – making this a track that is truly…off the beaten track.

In order to (safely) get away from the hiking masses, you’re going to have to plan ahead. Here’s how to plan a trip to hike the Transcaucasian Trail. 

With maps, GPS and careful planning for water

This trail requires a lot of preparation. It should only be hiked between June and September, as outside of this season snow makes parts of the trail inaccessible. (Even when I hiked in August, some snow lingered in the Gegham Mountains.) Yet while the warm summer months clear the trails for hiking, the season brings challenges: in July and August temperatures along much of the route soar to more than 32°C (90°F). Since water is scarce, you’ll need bottles with a few liters’ capacity, as well as a filter-purifier to refill them. 

It’s essential to download route-planning apps. While there are no physical maps of the TCT, GPX files are available through the TCT website (a suggested donation of $100 gets you access to route guides, plus a Slack channel run by trail planners and recent hikers). I’m not exaggerating when I say the trail would be impossible without these resources. 

There will be lots of gear involved – so really think this through

While there were times that I wished I was an ultralight packer, I don’t regret taking with me such “luxuries” as my Kindle and deodorant. As you pack, keep in mind that for the TCT you need to be totally self-sufficient. This means carrying up to seven days’ worth of food for certain areas, as well as the means to prepare it (cooking or cold soaking).

Much of the TCT requires wild camping, so good gear is essential. Where there are guesthouses, you’ll need cash; you’ll find ATMs in larger towns, though I still recommend having a couple of hundred dollars’ worth of Armenian drams when you start the trail. Be prepared for all weather conditions, as the altitude along the way will rise and fall by almost 10,000ft (3000m). A sun hat, a waterproof shell and thermal layers are all musts. 

Send yourself resupply packages via the HIKEArmenia office in Yerevan; most towns will have at least a small shop to receive them. For camping gas and other last-minute supplies, Camp.am in Yerevan is your only option.

An Armenian SIM card (I used UCom) will get you unlimited data for less than $15 per month, and can be renewed at top-up machines in any large town. When you’ve got so much off-road navigation, this is invaluable. Take a copy of your ID to scan.

Set out from different starting points for northbound and southbound journeys

Any great journey begins with a single step – though in the case of the TCT, your initial ones will be on airport escalators and rickety buses, before you set out on the trail itself. Fly into Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, then catch a bus from there to either Meghri, at the southern end of the trail (nine hours), or to Gyumri, from where you’ll take a taxi to Lake Arpi to begin the trail southbound. Since buses fill up, call ahead to book using the number listed on bus companies’ Facebook pages (or ask someone to do this for you if you don’t speak Armenian). The day of your journey, the driver will have a list of passengers who have reserved in advance (there are no tickets). 

Before you set out for Armenia, decide which direction you’ll be hiking. South-to-north is a baptism of fire, with Arevik National Park the toughest, remotest part of the trail. I saw no one for three days and had to carry enough water to satiate a camel on a trans-Saharan odyssey. Yet this is also one of the most spectacular sections I experienced.

Expect near-limitless generosity in the countryside

I took too much food because I hadn’t anticipated the limitless generosity of the nomads, villagers and farmers that I met along the way. Like an army, hungry hikers march on their stomachs, so enjoy it! Hospitality is paramount to Armenians, so when you’re waddling along with a belly as heavy as your backpack, you’ve likely made your hosts very happy. 

As a solo female traveler, I was regularly taken in by families who fed and housed me, and let me shower in their homes (a true luxury). Men may be less likely to be invited to stay, though everyone can expect to be well-fed. While women hiking alone are a common sight in the Armenian countryside, use your best judgment and common sense about accepting hospitality along the way.

You’ll see plenty if you only have a week

Many of us don’t have the luxury of taking months of vacation, and even in four weeks I didn’t complete the full length of the TCT’s Armenian section. If you’ve only got a week, I recommend the Gegham Mountains, a green moonscape of remote lakes in volcanic craters, nomadic, yurt-dwelling shepherd families and frequent violent flash storms. It’s the highest part of the Armenian trail – and its wide-open spaces give you a nice (natural!) high, too.

I’d do it the same way. On a hike of any length here, the trail is your classroom.

Set aside your preconceptions of what it’s like to do a thru-hike. So you’ve done the GR20? Fantastic: since you’re clearly in great physical shape, much of the TCT won’t be so tough on your body. But instead of a well-marked trail expect lots of bushwhacking, and no cold beer afterwards. Hiked the PCT? Wonderful: you’ve got stamina and are accustomed to being self-sufficient. But expect to multiply the solitude you experienced by a huge factor. On the TCT you can go days without seeing a human face – and when you do, you can expect a large language barrier to contend with. 

Most of all, enjoy it. Hiking Armenia is an education about an ancient, rich civilization, and a place that sees comparatively little footfall. A journey here turns you into an explorer.

OPINION:

The Armenian genocide during World War I was perpetrated against a disarmed populace, whose own government took advantage of a registry of guns to confiscate the weapons from Christian minorities who would use them to defend themselves.

My family hails from the region of present-day Turkey that was ethnically cleansed of nearly all Christian minorities during the First World War. Thankfully, most of my direct ancestors escaped to the United States. But others were not so lucky.

While bigotry, nationalism and other factors contributed to the genocide, the gun registry was one of the most consequential reasons the Turks effectively carried out this barbaric act.

We know from the Ottoman Penal Code that the firearm registry was universal and instituted before the genocide. In addition to a gun registry, there were specific penalties put in place for Christians if they were caught openly bearing arms. Despite these restrictions, I’m proud that people in my ancestors’ village of Tomarza were known to openly carry guns in direct defiance of the tyrannical Turkish government.

Unfortunately, their defiance did not stop the Turks in the long run. My great-grandfather’s brother, an eyewitness, wrote in a letter that after the Turks declared that all registered guns would be confiscated, it resulted in “all weapons, even hunting guns, [being] surrendered to the government.” If anyone refused to do so, they would be put to death.

Recently, another relative uncovered a personal testimony from his father, John Armaganian, a survivor and another eyewitness to the Armenian genocide. In his recounting of events, not only did the Turks seek to confiscate “all military supplies and guns” but also “their knives and revolvers.”

In his testimony, Mr. Armaganian says his own father (my relative’s grandfather) was asked by the police how many guns and rifles he had, and he responded:

“’The ones I had were rusty and I turned them in already, and I haven’t anymore,’ but the officer didn’t believe him. He proceeded to ask about some buried underground. When he denied he had any, he was mercilessly beaten. Twice he was hauled into the police station and both times he was beaten worse than before, preventing him from walking for three weeks. Eventually, he was forced to work in a labor battalion and was never heard from again.”

Most Armenians were sent on death marches through the Syrian desert to die. The stated reason by the Ottoman Empire is because of the war, they needed to move “for their safety” — a common phrase also used as justification by gun control advocates to this day.

This recent historical example cannot paint a clearer picture of the immense danger of a gun registry and how gun confiscation would play out. Even without mass compliance, the authorities would know exactly who to target.

If the existence of a small minority within the Ottoman Empire could elicit such overwhelming violence from the regime, one can only imagine the lengths a modern regime would resort to against an armed minority here in America.

Some would argue that such an action would never happen here, but the groundwork is already being laid. Thanks to extensive Freedom of Information Act requests from Gun Owners of America, we can confirm that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the federal agency charged with regulating guns, has amassed nearly 1 billion firearm transaction records into a digitized, searchable database. These records contain several personally identifiable data points, and the compiling of these records, in direct contradiction to federal law, absolutely constitutes a registry of many guns in America today.

Alarmingly, the current administration is actively working to expand the records the ATF collects though both the “frame and receiver” rule, which will add homemade firearms into the registry, and via the zero-tolerance policy, which is aggressively shutting down lawful gun dealers, whose records will then be added to the registry.

Just as was done to my ancestors, our own government right now has the tools to enact a mass gun confiscation. The same excuse will be given: It’s being done in the name of safety or under emergency authority.

My family’s greatest tragedy should be our country’s greatest warning. Do not give the government an inch — not just because it’s a constitutional right, but because gun registration opens the door to unspeakable government-imposed tragedy.

Right now, some in Congress are actively working to destroy the registry. Ultimately, however, it’s up to the people to ensure our government swiftly and wholly destroys these records and erects further barriers to prevent this from ever occurring in the future.

• Alex Madajian is a federal affairs assistant for Gun Owners of America, a nonprofit grassroots lobbying organization with over 2 million members nationwide.

The Wellington City Council has revoked police permission to trespass people from Anzac Day services held on its property.

It comes after Wellington man Richard Noble arrived at the Ataturk Turkish memorial last Anzac Day carrying a banner with the words “Recognise Armenian Genocide” on it. But a police officer warned him that, if he waved his banner, he would be asked to leave and he would be arrested for trespass if he refused to do so.

Council chief executive Barbara McKerrow had issued recurring Anzac Day permission to police to allow them to trespass from the land, which is owned by the city council.

A statement from the council on Friday said police had told council they no longer needed the delegated trespass powers and McKerrow had since revoked it.

It came after the Independent Police Conduct Authority looked into the police action last Anzac Day following a complaint from Noble.

In February Noble received a letter from the IPCA informing him that police had accepted that the officer’s comments to him on Anzac Day were wrong and that they “had the effect of preventing you from undertaking lawful protest activities”.

The letter said: “The authority has agreed with police that they will contact you to apologise for the way you were dealt with.

The authority noted that as well as speaking to the officer concerned, police would develop a training package to “further educate frontline staff about their powers and expectations at protests”.

Noble on Friday said he was yet to receive the apology. The council revocation was probably a good thing as it removed a “grey area”, he said.

Police retained their usual arrest powers – for example, he could still be arrested for breach of the peace if he made a scene at an Anzac service.

The killing of between 664,000 and 1.2 million Armenian people by the Ottoman – now Turkish – government between 1915 and 1916 is recognised as genocide by 32 countries including the United States, Canada, France, Germany and Russia.New Zealand does not officially recognise it as a genocide.