Author: Kajoyan Gevork

The Daily Star, Lebanon
Oct 15 2012

Armenian plane en route to Syria searched in Turkey

October 15, 2012 09:37 PM (Last updated: October 15, 2012 09:40 PM) By
Gulsen Solaker, Ozge Ozbilgin

ANKARA: Turkey ordered an Armenian plane flying to the Syrian city of
Aleppo to land and searched its cargo on Monday, Ankara’s latest move
to prevent its airspace being used to supply the Syrian military.

The plane was allowed to continue on its way after the search in the
eastern Turkish city of Erzurum confirmed it was carrying humanitarian
aid as stated by Armenian officials, a Turkish deputy prime minister
said.

Turkey forced down a Syrian airliner that had come from Moscow on
Wednesday, and said it had found Russian munitions on board destined
for Syria’s armed forces.

NATO-member Turkey has become increasingly assertive in challenging
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the face of growing tensions along
the border and banned all Syrian aircraft from its airspace in the
wake of that incident.

“The plane was ordered to land and it was inspected. It was clear that
the declaration was correct and the plane was given permission to take
off,” Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Turkey had the sovereign right under
the Chicago convention on civil aviation to require planes crossing
its airspace to make a “technical landing” but did not say whether
this right would be exercised in future.

Armenia confirmed it had known the plane would be searched.

“The landing of the airplane in Turkey was planned and it was carried
out according to a previously reached agreement. The airplane is
delivering humanitarian aid to Syria,” Armenian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Tigran Balayan said.

Aleppo has a sizeable ethnic Armenian minority.

Last week’s decision to force down and search the Syrian plane
travelling from Russia infuriated Moscow and Damascus.

Russia has said there were no weapons on the plane and that it was
carrying a legal cargo of radar equipment. But Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov later said the incident would not hurt the countries’ “solid”
relations.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan repeated on Monday Ankara’s
charge that the airliner was carrying military equipment. The packages
seized from the plane bore the name KBP Instrument Design Bureau, a
Russian weapons manufacturer, and the recipient was the Syrian Defence
Ministry, he said.

“The material (being exchanged) between these two institutions, which
is now in our hands, is definitely warfare material,” Erdogan said.
“There is no reason to contort this by calling it radar equipment or
something else. In any case, radar material is used for the purpose of
war.”

He also downplayed Russian requests for information.

“Russia wants information from us. They don’t need to ask us, they can
just ask the respective bureau. It’s clear from the consignment note,”
he told a news conference.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at the weekend that
Turkish airspace had been closed to Syrian planes. Syria also banned
Turkish planes from flying over its territory.

The confrontation between Turkey and Syria has escalated in the last
two weeks because of cross-border shelling, with Ankara retaliating
after five Turkish civilians were killed when a Syrian shell hit a
Turkish border town.

The bloodshed inside Syria has worsened markedly in the past two
months although neither government nor rebels have been able to gain a
decisive advantage.

The increased conflict has fuelled further refugee flows across
Syria’s borders, with many fleeing to Turkey.

The Turkish disaster management agency (AFAD) said on Monday there
were now 100,363 Syrians at more than a dozen camps.

Turkey has said it will struggle to accommodate more than 100,000 and
has urged the United Nations to build refugee camps in a safe zone
within Syria’s borders.

The Associated Press
October 15, 2012 Monday 08:48 PM GMT

Historic mosque burned in ancient Syrian city

By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press
BEIRUT

A landmark mosque in Aleppo was burned, scarred by bullets and trashed
the latest casualty of Syria’s civil war and President Bashar Assad on
Monday ordered immediate repairs to try to stem Muslim outrage at the
desecration of the 12th century site.

The Umayyad Mosque suffered extensive damage, as has the nearby
medieval covered market, or souk, which was gutted by a fire that was
sparked by fighting two weeks ago. The market and the mosque are
centerpieces of Aleppo’s walled Old City, which is listed as a UNESCO
World Heritage site.

Government troops had been holed up in the mosque for months before
rebels launched a push this week to drive them out. Activists and
Syrian government officials blamed each other for the weekend fire at
the mosque.

Rebel supporters also alleged that regime forces defaced the shrine
with offensive graffiti and drank alcohol inside, charges bound to
further raise religious tensions in Syria. Many of the rebels are
Sunni Muslims, while the regime is dominated by Alawites, or followers
of an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

“It’s all blackened now,” activist Mohammad al-Hassan said of the
site, also known as the Great Mosque. One of Syria’s oldest and
largest shrines, it was built around a vast courtyard and enclosed in
a compound adjacent to the ancient citadel.

Al-Hassan said the army had been using the mosque as a base because of
its strategic location in the Old City and he blamed Assad for the
destruction.

“He burns down the country and its heritage, and then he says he will
rebuild it. Why do you destroy it to begin with?” al-Hassan said in a
telephone interview from Aleppo.

Fighting has destroyed large parts of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city
with 3 million residents and its former business capital. Activists
say more than 33,000 people have died in the conflict, which began in
March 2011 and has turned into a civil war.

Five of Syria’s six World Heritage sites have been damaged in the
fighting, according to UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural agency. Looters
have broken into one of the world’s best-preserved Crusader castles,
Crac des Chevaliers, and ruins in the ancient city of Palmyra have
been damaged.

Both rebels and regime forces have turned some of Syria’s significant
historic sites into bases, including citadels and Turkish bath houses,
while thieves have stolen artifacts from museums.

Karim Hendili, a Paris-based UNESCO expert who oversees heritage sites
in the Arab world, said Aleppo’s Old City has been hardest hit. The
fire that swept through the souk burned more than 500 shops in the
narrow, vaulted passageways, destroying a testament to its flourishing
commercial history.

“After the loss of the souk, there is now major damage of the mosque,”
Hendili said.

The “soul of the city” is really being damaged, he added, “and this is
difficult to repair.”

Video posted online by activists show a large fire and black smoke
raging in the mosque Saturday, and there also are shots of its
blackened, pockmarked walls. Debris is strewn on the floors where
worshippers once prayed on green and gold carpets.

The videos are consistent with AP’s reporting of the incident.

“Assad’s thugs set the mosque on fire as a punishment for being
defeated by the Free Syrian Army,” the caption on one video read.

In another video, a rebel inside the mosque holds up a torn copy of
the Muslim holy book, saying: “These are our Qurans. This is our
religion, our history.”

The rebel in the video also held up an empty bottle, saying it had
contained alcohol.

The Syrian government said it pushed back rebels out of the mosque
after the weekend fighting, although activists gave conflicting
reports on who controls it.

Rami Martini, chief of Aleppo’s Chamber of Tourism, blamed rebels for
targeting the city’s monuments and archaeological treasures. He said
the losses were impossible to estimate because of the fighting in the
area, but added it could be the most serious damage since an
earthquake in 1830s struck the mosque.

Despite the fire, the structure of the mosque appeared to be intact,
although a gate that leads to the ancient market was burned, said
Martini, who is specialized in repairing archaeological sites and
monuments.

The platform inside the mosque, or minbar, and the prayer niche also
were damaged by the fire, Martini said. The wooden minbar is identical
to the one burned in Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969, he said.

Valuables were stolen from the mosque’s library, Martin said,
including a transparent box purported to contain a strand of hair from
the Prophet Muhammad, along with centuries-old handwritten copies of
the Quran.

Assad issued a presidential decree to form a committee to repair the
mosque by the end of 2013, although it’s not clear what such a body
could do amid a raging civil war. The mosque’s last renovations began
about 20 years ago and were completed in 2006.

In other developments Monday:

The Syria military denied reports by a human rights group that it has
been dropping cluster bombs indiscriminate scattershot munitions
during fighting. The denial came in a statement carried by the
state-run SANA news agency.

Allegations that cluster bombs were used are “baseless and are part of
media propaganda that aims to divert international public opinion from
crimes committed by armed terrorist groups,” the statement said.

The New-York based Human Rights Watch on Sunday cited amateur video
and testimony from the front lines in making the allegation that
Assad’s government has been using the bombs that are banned by most
nations in what the group said was a new sign of desperation and
disregard for its own people.

The European Union stepped up pressure on Assad’s regime, banning
Syrian Arab Airlines from EU airports.

At a meeting in Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers added 28 people to
those whose assets are frozen and who are denied EU visas. They also
froze the assets of two more companies, including the airline.

The U.N. envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, arrived in Baghdad for talks
with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other officials on the
neighboring country’s civil war. Brahimi is touring the region to try
to resolve the Syrian crisis.

Turkey forced a Syrian-bound plane from Armenia to land in order to
search the cargo for weapons. The plane, which was carrying aid for
Aleppo, was granted permission to fly in Syrian airspace on condition
that it could be searched for military equipment, said Turkish Foreign
Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal.

After the search, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said the
cargo contained humanitarian aid and was allowed to continue to Syria.

Last week, Turkey forced a Syrian passenger plane traveling from
Moscow to Damascus to land in Ankara on suspicion it carried military
gear. Russia, which has backed Assad, said the equipment was spare
parts for radar systems.

Over the weekend, Syria and Turkey barred each other’s commercial
aircraft from flying over their respective territories. The bans came
after a week of exchanging fire across their volatile border.

The Turkish government said the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey
surpassed the 100,000 mark and that about 7,000 more were waiting at
the border to get in.

Associated Press writers Karin Laub, Zeina Karam and Bassem Mroue in
Beirut, Albert Aji in Damascus, Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Frank
Jordans in Istanbul contributed to this report.

Armenian, Moroccan FMs discuss bilateral relations

October 15, 2012 – 20:33 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian met with
his Moroccan counterpart Saad-Eddine Al-Othmani.

Prospects for development of bilateral relations, expansion of the
legal framework, strengthening of economic, scientific, educational
and cultural ties were in the focus of the discussion.

Minister Nalbandian further briefed his counterpart on Nagorno
Karabakh conflict settlement, RA MFA

Opinion | October 15, 2012 10:02 am

By Edmond Y. Azadian

When we characterize the Middle East as a powder keg which might explode at
any moment, we are using a cliché commonly cited in today’s political
discourse.

As the tensions rise there, the ramifications reverberate around the world.
At the present time, when motorists pay through their noses at the gas
pump, they seldom realize that the fluctuations in oil prices correspond
with the war rhetoric in and about the Middle East. The news media has
refined its brainwashing capacity to such a sophisticated degree that the
average citizen is at the mercy of demagogues.

The concern over Iran’s nuclear prospects has contributed to the tensions
in the Middle East, especially at the prodding of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been pushing the Obama administration to draw
the `red line’ in front of Tehran, threatening military action, if Iran
crosses that red line.

The Israeli prime minister’s insistence went so far recently that an op-ed
piece in the New York Times advised President Obama to draw a `red line’ in
front of Netanyahu to stop him from meddling in the US presidential
politics.

After Republican candidate for President Gov. Mitt Romney’s pilgrimage to
Israel and his pledge of complete surrender (Jerusalem as the capital of
Israel, Palestinians inferior to Israelis), hopes were raised within the
Israeli leadership that the Obama administration would rush to match
Romney’s rhetoric, courting the support of the Jewish voters. A contender
may promise the sky, yet the leaders in charge of a country’s destiny
cannot act recklessly. Given the continuing bloodshed in Iraq and
Afghanistan, when a combined number of 6,500 US troops have been sacrificed
with more than 50,000 veterans disabled or gripped by suicide fever, the
Obama administration reacted more responsibly, staying the course and
insisting that economic sanctions had been working in dampening Iran’s
nuclear hopes.

Ironically, the policy paid off and President Obama’s ratings in the polls
rose significantly, driving home the truth that people in the US are tired
of continuous wars which have had a catastrophic impact on the US economy,
parallel to the human losses.

In view of these developments, Netanyahu toned down his bellicose rhetoric.

Under the pressure of the sanctions, Iran’s currency, the rial, recently
suffered a 40-percent depreciation, touching off riots in the streets there.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the protests in Iran linked to the
country’s weakening currency are causing Israeli officials to reconsider
the likelihood of a strike against Iranian nuclear targets.

Iran, in its turn, raised its own war rhetoric, which must not have

been lost on observers. Indeed, the former chief of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps announced to Press TV that `if the Israelis
attack, Iran’s deterrent power would deal a mortal blow to them and that
the Israeli death toll would not be less than 10,000.’

All this exchange of rhetoric has been flying over the heads of neighboring
nations, which will suffer most should a conflagration be triggered.
Armenia, being on the front line, will become the first one to be affected.

The US has befriended medieval potentates in the Gulf Emirates, Saudi
Arabia and Jordan, using the euphemistic description of `moderate regimes’
to cover up the political compromise of its own democratic principles.
Therefore, Armenia is entitled to choose its own friends (especially when
its lifeline hinges on that choice) regardless if those friends are viewed
as less democratic in the Western lexicon of double-standards.

Iran has been a friend of Armenia for centuries. Armenians have enjoyed
prosperity during the rule of the Shah and they have been treated with
dignity even under the Islamic Republic. As Georgia is conniving with
Azerbaijan against it, Armenia has a more reliable route with the outside
world through Iran.

Plus, through political necessity, the two countries have been drawn closer
together.

Iran is a huge country with abundant energy resources which it has also
been trading with Armenia. Iran is the 18th largest country in the world,
with a land mass of 636,372 square miles that can cover the UK, France,
Germany and Spain, combined. Its population is 75 million, with Persians
accounting for 61 percent of the population, Azeris 16 percent and Kurds 10
percent.

Unlike the Ottomans, Ittihadists and Kemalists who exterminated Armenians
to take over their historic homeland, the Persian rulers have valued
Armenians as creative and enterprising people and they have encouraged them
to be integrated into their societies. An example of that `tough love’
was
expressed by Shah Abbas, in the early 17th century, who forced Armenians
from Julfa (Jugha) in Nakhichevan, Armenia, to migrate to Persia and form
New Julfa, in Isfahan, to contribute to the economic development of his
country.

The war rhetoric around Iran has another dimension, which no longer is kept
as a secret but is discussed publicly: the plan is to implode Iran along
ethnic fault lines and to snatch the northern region (Iranian Azerbaijan)
and attach it to the Republic of Azerbaijan, the dynastic property of the
Aliyev clan, ruled by another `moderate’ despot, to please the West. If
this indeed happens, it will create a huge docile country in the region, at
the expense of Armenia, which would face a more formidable, larger enemy,
supported and armed by Turkey and Israel.

The fallout from any military attack on Iran or any territorial partition
will translate into a catastrophic blow to a beleaguered Armenia.

AGBU, ARF ready to help accommodate Syrian Armenians

October 15, 2012 – 19:12 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – 5 000 Syrian Armenians (1500 families) currently
reside in Armenia, RA Diaspora Minister said.

`500 children go to school, while the number of Syrian Armenian
students totals 200,’ Hranush Hakobyan said when briefing the outcomes
of 2012, naming employment as the main problem.

Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) and Armenian Relief Society
(ARF) have expressed readiness to solve the accommodation problem for
those Syrian Armenians willing to reside in Yerevan’s neighboring
towns.

Europe’s Islamization: Brussels local election candidates all Muslims

October 15, 2012 – 20:24 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Brussels held local government elections October 14.

As Belgium-based Armenian Samvel Avanesyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net
reporter, one of the central districts of Brussels Sint-Jans-Molenbeek
had only Muslim candidates.

The photos of the election campaign posters he took showed the true situation.

`Either Jalal, or Husein, or Muhammad will win the elections. That’s
the true image of Europe’s future,’ he said.

Avanesyan pointed to the district administration head Philippe Moreau
as the only Belgian candidate, who long ago converted to Islam after
marrying a Muslim woman.

Governor of Rostov suggests opening Armenian trade centre in Rostov-on-Don

13:42, 15 October, 2012

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Governor of Rostov-on-Don Federal
District of Russian Federation Vasiliy Golubev suggested opening
Armenian trade centre in Rostov-on-Don. As reports “Armenpress”,
citing Ug.rbc.ru, this was announced by press service of the governor.

According to Golubev opening of an Armenian trade centre will
encourage circulation of Armenian products on the South of Russian
Federation. Governor said that such an enterprise can be realized as a
result of cooperation of state and private sectors. For encouragement
of tourism he suggested making air flight between Armenia and
Rostov-on-Don more frequent.

In accordance with information of the press service trade circulation
between Armenia and Rostov-on-Don for six months of 2012 increased
twice in comparison with the same period of time of the previous year
reaching 13,4 million USD including export of 12,4 million USD and
import of 1 million USD.

The Republic of Armenia generally imports food and raw agricultural
materials from Rostov-on-Don region. Rostov as well imports food and
raw agricultural materials and construction materials from Armenia.

Turkey has one thousand and one problems with its neighbours

04:44 pm | Today | Politics

By instigating military actions against Syria, Turkey threats the
regional stability, says the Vice-President of the Russian
Geopolitical Academy.

Talking to journalists in Yerevan, Arayik Sargsyan reminded that last
week the Turkish legislators voted in favor of a bill that authorizes
the government to conduct cross-border military operations outside the
country’s borders, without specifying which border.

“With the given authorization, the Turkish government may start
military actions against Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Syria, Georgia and even
the Balkans, given the fact that Turkey has problems with almost all
its neighbours.”

The “zero problems with neighbours” slogan declared by [Turkish Prime
Minister] Recep ErdoÃ?Â?an has actually turned into “one thousand and one
problems with neighbours” slogan, said Mr Sargsyan.

Through its provocations, Turkey is seeking to involve Russia in its
planned war against Syria.

“This week Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was to visit Istanbul and
it was believed that Turkey would launch full-scale war against Syria,
following Putin’s visit. The Arab world would believe that Putin went
to Turkey to give his consent to the war,” the expert said adding that
Russia clearly understood it and President Putin delayed his visit to
Turkey for an indefinite period.

Arayik Sargsyan says Israel may benefit from the strained relations
between Turkey and Syria and start actions against Iran, using the
newly-opened Stepanakert airport for its aims.

Ambulance Never Arrives and a Young Woman Dies
Kristine Aghalaryan

16:59, October 10, 2012

On the night of February 23, a young woman died in the Armenian
mountain village of Koutakan while waiting for an ambulance that never
came.

22 year-old Armineh Yeritsyan was severely mentally retarded and her
mother Rouzanna says her daughter also suffered from a stomach ulcer.

On the night in question, Armineh felt increasingly queasy and was
vomiting. That’s when Rouzanna called for an ambulance.

Mirab Yeritsyan, Armineh’s father, says that while winter snows
frequently close the road to the village, the roads were open when his
daughter died.

There is no doctor in Koutakan, just a nurse. Rouzanna called the
nurse for advice. By the time the nurse arrived at the house Armineh
had passed away.

Koutakan village residents say that this isn’t the first time that an
ambulance has failed to show when called. At those times, residents
must transfer the sick person to hospital by any means available.

Hasmik Ghazaryan is the director of the Metz Masrik Out-Patient Clinic
that issued Armineh’s death certificate. The doctor says that Armineh
wasn’t a patient at the clinic and that they had no knowledge of the
alleged ulcer.

`There is no such ulcer disorder that can kill a person in just two
hours. How could such a young girl have an ulcer anyway? I can’t say
what she did or ate to get into such a state,’ Ghazaryan told Hetq.

The clinic director issued the death certificate based on an affidavit
signed by the village mayor and 12 residents. The certificate reads
that the deceased had experienced severe groin pains and couldn’t be
treated due to a winter storm.

Armineh was buried a day later without any autopsy.

`When they asked for a death certificate, I delayed giving it for a
long time. She was a young girl and they had no right to bury her
without an autopsy. They arrived with the mayor and the affidavit so I
issued the certificate. Now, I ask the parents why they buried the
girl so fast without knowing what she died of?’ asks Ghazaryan.

Village nurse Bavakan Lazarian confirms that they telephoned twice
for an ambulance and were told that one would arrive in an hour.

Lazarian then decided to take the sick girl to the hospital herself.
But when she arrived at the Yeritsyan house, it was too late.

We rang the 103 emergency hotline to get the number of the ambulance
service that covers the Vardenis area. We also wanted to ask them
about the night in question.

We were given 0269-23244 as the number to call.

We kept calling all day but no one answered.

Russia and Armenia sign a number of agreements following interregional forum

YEREVAN, October 15. /ARKA/. Armenia and Russia signed a number of
agreements following the Second Armenian-Russian interregional forum
held in Yerevan on Saturday.

Armenia’s government and the country’s Vayots Dzor region
administration signed a trade and economic, scientific and technical,
humanitarian cooperation agreement with the administration of Russia’s
Arkhangelsk region.

South Caucasus Railway CJSC signed 2012-2015 cooperation agreement
with Lori and Kotayk regions of Armenia, Rostov State University for
Railway Transportation, and GNCALFA CJSC.

After the plenary session the forum participants continued discussing
cooperation in different sectors between the two states at the round
table.

The first Armenian-Russian interregional forum was held in Yerevan on
April 18-20, 2011.

A number of agreements were reached following the forum, including the
memorandum signed between SCR and Armenia’s government on launching a
construction of a 32-km segment of Vanadzor-Fioletovo railway. -0-