Author: Kalantarian Kevo

IN MUSLIM AZERBAIJAN, SELF-INTEREST PROMPTS SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL ON GAZA

Value Walk
Aug 7 2014

by EurasiaNet
August 07, 2014, 3:52 pm

In Muslim Azerbaijan, Self-Interest Prompts Support for Israel on Gaza
by Eurasianet.org

The Facebook photo showing a hand holding an Azerbaijani passport
came with a simple message: “I stand with Israel.” For a majority
Shi’a Muslim country, that may not be an expected position to take
on the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Palestinians; a struggle
that has left hundreds of civilians dead or displaced since July. But
for many Azerbaijanis, the matter is a question of pragmatism.

“Israel supports Azerbaijan internationally and it is our strategic
partner,” elaborated Araz Behbudov, a 25-year-old accountant from
the Azerbaijani capital, Baku. “A strategic partnership comes before
everything, and we should give it priority.”

Proof of that partnership lies in the numbers. Israel gets well
over a third of its oil supplies from energy-rich Azerbaijan, and
ranks as a top trade partner. Israel itself has become a critical
arms supplier for the South-Caucasus country. In 2012, it agreed to
sell $1.6-billion-worth of anti-aircraft and missile defense systems
to Azerbaijan.

The unlikely duo’s ties date back to the early 1990s, when Azerbaijan,
having regained its independence after the collapse of the Soviet
Union, was struggling bitterly with Armenia and ethnic Armenian
separatists over breakaway Nagorno Karabakh. In 1992, Israel was
among the first countries to recognize Azerbaijan’s independence.

Officially, Baku has expressed support for a peaceful resolution
of the Gaza conflict and for the peaceful creation of a “sovereign
Palestinian state…”

But maintaining friendly ties with Israel, whose main ally is the
United States, is seen by many Azerbaijanis as a surer way to gain
access in Washington.

Politicians, for instance, tend to credit American Jewish organizations
for the lobbying that resulted in a 2002 executive waiver of Section
907 of the 1992 Freedom Support Act, a measure that had banned US
aid to Azerbaijan because of the war in Karabakh.

For all these reasons, Azerbaijan cannot afford not to support Israel
now, reasoned Erkin Gadirli, a board member of the opposition movement
Republican Alternative.

“The American Jewish lobby is necessary to neutralize the Armenian
lobby in the US,” Gadirli claimed, in reference to the ongoing fight
with Armenia over Karabakh. “Azerbaijanis also need Israel to stay
strong against threats coming from Iran and the Middle East,” he
said, speaking of Islamic terrorism. “Unfortunately, we cannot act
now based on universal human-rights values.”

But at the same time, Baku has domestic reasons for its support of
Israel as well. Azerbaijan is home to roughly 10,000 ethnic Jews,
according to official data; most live in the district of Krasnaya
Sloboda (Red Settlement) in the northern region of Guba. In general,
their ties with their Muslim neighbors are strong, with no reported
clashes or cases of discrimination.

Despite that background, however, some observers believe that, amidst
a revival in Azerbaijan’s Islamic heritage, disapproval of Israel
has started to increase since its attacks on Gaza began in July.

“It was the first time I observed serious solidarity in public
opinion about attacks on Gaza, both in traditional and social media,”
commented Haci Ilqar Ibrahimoglu, an imam and the chairperson of the
Centre for the Protection of Freedom of Conscience and Religion.

But other public displays of that disapproval have fallen short. On
July 25, the banned Islamic Party of Azerbaijan attempted to organize
a protest in front of the Israeli embassy in Baku, but was prevented
by police.

Last month, some Baku supermarkets also decided to stop selling
Coca-Cola products from a mistaken belief that the American company
is Israeli-owned. One popular newspaper columnist, Zamin Haji, put a
dent in this notion, though, by pointing out that Coca-Cola Company
Chief Executive Officer Muhtar Kent is of Turkish descent. The boycott,
heavily ridiculed on social media, eventually was dropped.

But the online support for Israel also reflects a relatively grim
side of Azerbaijani society – the government’s heavy influence on
news outlets, both online and offline.

“Because of the government’s close relationship with Israel, the
media covers only positive stuff and ignores anything that can
damage the image of Israel,” noted Orkhan Gafarli, an Azerbaijani
analyst on Eurasia at the Istanbul think tank Bilge Adamlar Stratejik
Ara?t?rmalar Merkezi. “Most Azerbaijanis do not have a chance to get
[other] news about Gaza.”

While opposition and independent news outlets exist, television,
the most powerful medium in Azerbaijan, is under state influence or
control. Eighty-eight percent of 1,988 Azerbaijani respondents in
a 2013 survey by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers stated that
they believe TV news coverage is reliable.

Even those who turn to online foreign media for alternative news
about Gaza still have a tendency to back Israel, continued Gafarli.

“They strongly believe that supporting Israel is part of Western
identity, no matter whether Israel acts fairly or not,” he said.

Laying claim to that identity, however imperfectly understood,
appears ever more desirable for many Azerbaijanis.

Over the past few years, scores of male Azerbaijanis are reported to
have headed to Syria to wage jihad against Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad. Supporting Gaza, ruled by Hamas, internationally seen as
a terrorist organization, only would encourage that trend, argued
43-year-old Surkhan Latifov.

“It is all about serious terrorism in the region … It can transfer
to Azerbaijan at any time.”

“Azerbaijan is a secular state based on democratic principles,”
concluded 25-year-old Anar Masimli, an Azerbaijani student at the
University of Flensburg in Germany. “In the Middle East, only Turkey
and Israel share the same values. That is why I support Israel.”

Editor’s note:

Shahla Sultanova is a freelance journalist focusing on Azerbaijan.

ERDOGAN PLAYS TO BASE BY SLIGHTING ARMENIANS

Al-Monitor
Aug 7 2014

Author: Cengiz Candar
Posted August 7, 2014

Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations with
a reputation for expertise on Turkey and Egypt, wrote an article for
Politico Aug. 5 headlined, “What a Turkey! Has the Turkish leader
lost his head?” The article discussed the alleged anti-Semitism of
the Turkish prime minister, currently running for the presidency.

Cook’s article begins, “If Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
were an American politician, he would be an excellent candidate for
one of Chris Cillizza’s ‘Worst Week in Washington’ features. First,
on Friday, July 19, a day after the State Department spokesperson
criticized him for his frequent invocation of the Nazis to describe
Israel’s behavior, Erdogan asked, ‘What do Americans know about
Hitler?’ Given that almost 200,000 young Americans died fighting in
Europe during WWII, quite a lot, actually.”

In the article, Cook refers to Richard Cohen’s Washington Post column
about “Erdogan’s ‘Hitler fetish,'” in which Cohen questioned whether
Erdogan had lost his mind.

Cook gave his personal opinion of Erdogan, writing, “Having an
over-inflated sense of self comes with being a world leader, and he’s
has been in the bubble for almost 12 years. And for all of Erdogan’s
seeming public decomposition, there is actually a perfectly rational
and sane politician astutely advancing his agenda, which at the moment
is focused on becoming Turkey’s next president. … When it comes to
anti-Semitism, Erdogan is guilty as charged, but sadly so are large
numbers of Turks. It is true that Jews found refuge in Turkey during
the Inquisition and have lived and prospered there ever since, but
that does not mean that anti-Semitism is alien to Turkish culture.”

Cook naturally couldn’t have imagined that what Erdogan would go on
to say about Armenians would dwarf his remarks about Israel. On the
night of Aug. 5 in a joint transmission by NTV and Star TV, he was
reminded that in an election rally, main opposition leader Kemal
Kilicdaroglu had said that he is an Alevi, Kurdish presidential
candidate Selahattin Demirtas had announced that he is a Zaza and
that Erdogan himself had cited his Sunnism. Erdogan blurted a reaction
that instantly generated a passionate public debate in Turkey.

He said, “Let all Turks in Turkey say they are Turks and all Kurds
say they are Kurds. What is wrong with that? You wouldn’t believe the
things they have said about me. They have said I am Georgian. Excuse
me, but they have said even uglier things. They have called me
Armenian, but I am Turkish.”

Turkish traditional and social media went wild next day with reports
of how on Aug. 11, 2003, in an official visit to neighboring Georgia,
Erdogan had said, “I am also a Georgian. Our family is a Georgian
family that emigrated from Batumi to Rize.” Thus the source of the
allegation that he was Georgian was Erdogan himself. Clearly, he
did not find any ethnic identity other than Turkish healthy for his
electoral fortunes a few days before the vote.

But it was not his denial of Georgian origin that triggered the
passionate public debate. It was the way he phrased the Armenian
identity. His remark, “Excuse me, but they have said even uglier
things. They have called me Armenian,” was taken as an example of
hate speech and an unjustifiable insult to the Armenian identity,
and the public erupted in exceptionally harsh reactions.

On Aug. 6, a group of well-known Turkish-Armenian intellectuals and
business people cynically calling themselves “Excuse us, Armenians”
issued an articulate statement that read, “For years we were forced to
shout out that we are Turkish. But we never found it ugly. We found
it wrong. We were upset being persistently told who we are. … Did
we have any enemies of Turks, any racists among us? Of course we did,
as much as any other nation. But we didn’t crown these racists.”

The statement ends with the following lines that would break the heart
of any conscientious person: “As a people whose ancestry has been
pulverized, we continue to live quietly as a diaspora on our own land.

Stop baiting us, enjoy your life. Continue to live your life until
the day we Armenians, Greeks, Syriacs, Turks, Kurds, Circassians,
Georgians, Alevis, Christians, Jews and Muslims, with our brethren
who vote for you or not, prove that we can do better than you.”

Among the 17 signatories were the names of late journalist Hrant
Dink’s son Arat Dink, Agos editor-in-chief Rober Koptas and his close
associate Karin Karakasli, as well as well-known Armenian names such
as Anna Turay, Aris Nalci, Garo Paylan, Hayko Bagdat and Yetvart
Danzikyan, publishers and business people such as Ardasez Margosyan
and Nazar Buyum particularly stood out.

The unforgettable symbol of Armenian identity in Turkey, Hrant Dink,
was assassinated in 2007, and his funeral was at the time the greatest
mass demonstration ever in Istanbul. His weekly Agos newspaper carried
a photo of Erdogan on its Aug. 7 front page, accompanied by headline,
“May Allah Forgive You.” The piece read, “So now this happened, too.

Presidential candidate Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not
find it enough to declare he is a Turk but also announced he is not
an Armenian, with a grimace of disgust.

“Perhaps all of us living in this country are very lucky. You never
get bored. There is always an opportunity to amuse ourselves with a
further beguiling diversion and our share of hatred narratives. … Of
course, no ethnic identity is a cause of pride or shame by itself.

Such generalizations can only be the product of a racist mindset. We
know very well that in addition to the estimated 50,000 Armenians in
Turkey, there are thousands of people of Armenian ancestry living in
this land. Our small number and the need for many to remain secret
Armenians are the bitter heritage of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. What
we want to say it that there are so many other issues to ask for
Armenians’ forgiveness. But there is no one apologizing or asking for
our forgiveness. To the contrary, the burden of discrimination gets
heavier by the day. When the prime minister finds being an Armenian
ugly — excuse us — some people are ready to don their white berets
[as ultranationalists] and threaten Agos with impunity. The holy Quran
says people were divided into nations and tribes so that they can get
to know each other. We wonder if the prime minister is aware of the
values he is trampling on with his remarks. What else is there to say,
except, may God forgive his transgressions.”

Cook concluded his article, “Erdogan will leave nothing to chance.

“This is not to excuse Erdogan’s recent Jew-baiting or an entire
previous year of intimidating his opponents, cowing the press,
restricting access to the Internet, purging the bureaucracy and
banning (unsuccessfully) social media. These are the tactics of a
tin-pot dictator, not a major NATO ally, but Erdogan does not care.

Behind the bluster and thuggish politics is an effort to secure the
domestic political arena. To the extent that this approach plays
well among voters in Kayseri, Trabzon and Erzurum, Erdogan will reap
the benefits.

“From afar, Erdogan certainly seems crazy, but he is more likely
crazy like a fox.”

One can substitute “recent Armenian-insulting” for “recent Jew-baiting”
and Cook’s judgment remains applicable.

Erdogan, in terms of domestic politics, as a political mastermind, can
be elected president but his alleged anti-Semitism and his insulting
remarks on the Armenian identity will haunt him all him all the
way, particularly in 2015, the 100th anniversary of what Armenian
communities all over the world remember and depict as a genocide.

Turkey, thanks to the “great master” and “strong leader’s” unscrupulous
attitude and hate speech toward religious and ethnic minorities,
appears destined to suffer constant headaches in the international
arena.

Armenian Assembly of America News
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Representatives Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman Condemn Azerbaijan Aggression
against the people of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

AAANews Blog
August 7, 2014

Today, Representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Brad Sherman (D-CA) commented
on the latest Azerbaijani aggression against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Congressman Schiff said that “For two decades, the people of
Nagorno-Karabakh have lived with constant threats and sniper fire from
Azerbaijan, which seeks to reassert control over the overwhelmingly
Armenian population of the region. Last week, Azeri forces again attacked
across the Line of Contact, resulting in casualties on both sides. This
latest resort to violence must be condemned in the strongest terms, and
America should call upon the Azeri government to withdraw its forces and
renounce the use of snipers, especially against civilians, and all American
military assistance should be suspended until Azerbaijan does so.

“Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev plan
to meet starting tomorrow, but if their talks are to have any chance of
bearing fruit, President Aliyev is going to adopt a sharply different tone
from his remarks of late, when he asserted that Azerbaijan had the means to
destroy ‘any facility in Nagorno-Karabakh’ and again trumpeted his
country’s military prowess.

“Since breaking free of a regime that encouraged violence and pogroms
against its Armenian Christian citizens, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh
have sought to build democracy and a market economy at home. Baku has
responded with an oil-boom funded military build-up and a campaign of
bellicose rhetoric and has so imbued its citizens with blood lust against
Armenians, that an Azeri army captain who beheaded a sleeping Armenian
colleague during a NATO Partnership for Peace exercise was treated as a
hero and promoted to major after his transfer from a Hungarian prison in
2012. Now is the time for the Minsk Group to assert itself in this
long-running and increasingly dangerous dispute. The people of
Nagorno-Karabakh have the right to determine their own future, free from
Azeri threats and violence, and they also have the right to go about their
lives without fear of being shot in the back by a sniper.”

Congressman Sherman said: `I am deeply saddened by the recent reports of
escalated violence on the Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia border and the
deaths of several Armenian and Azeri soldiers. I am taken aback by
Azerbaijan’s attacks on Red Cross staff in a border village in Armenia and
Baku’s decision to use sniper rifles in this conflict after several years
of respecting the decision by both sides to refrain from doing so. It is
my sincere hope that Azerbaijan will abstain from further sniper attacks
and instead engage in meaningful resolution talks with Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh.’

Available online at:

L’ARMENIE A IMPORTE 937 MILLIONS DE METRES CUBES DE GAZ AU PREMIER TRIMESTRE

ARMENIE

Au premier trimestre de 2014 l’Armenie a importe 937,6 millions de
mètres cubes de gaz naturel et melange pour 204 millions de dollars,
soit 2,1% de moins qu’a la meme periode de l’an dernier a annonce le
service des douanes dans un communique.

La Russie representait 845,3 millions de mètres cubes de gaz importe
(en hausse de 13,2%) avec une valeur en douane de 186,6 millions de $
(+ 1,2%). Le reste du gaz naturel 92,4 millions de mètres cubes (en
baisse de 31,1%) a ete importe d’Iran. Sa valeur en douane a ete de
17,4 millions de (en baisse de 27,7%).

jeudi 7 août 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

LES SANCTIONS OCCIDENTALES A L’ENCONTRE DE LA RUSSIE FRAPPERONT-ELLES AUSSI L’ARMENIE ?

ARMENIE

C’est cette question que se posent plusieurs editorialistes ce 31
juillet, rappelant les liens economiques etroits entre la Russie
et l’Armenie. Haykakan Jamanak estime que l’economie armenienne
est tellement imbriquee avec celle de la Russie que n’importe quel
evenement affectant celle-ci aura des repercussions socio-economiques
en Armenie. Le quotidien presente quelques statistiques attestant de
la dependance economique envers la Russie : les transferts bancaires
se sont eleves en 2013 a 1,869 milliards de dollars, dont 1,606
milliards (85%) en provenance de Russie. Selon ce quotidien, c’est
chaque annee près de 3 milliards de dollars qui parviennent ainsi
en Armenie de Russie, soit l’equivalant des depenses budgetaires
annuelles du pays. De surcroît, le marche russe constitue l’une
des principales destinations des marchandises armeniennes : les
exportations vers la Russie se sont elevees en 2013 a 335 M USD,
soit 23% des exportations totales armeniennes. Enfin, la Russie est
le premier investisseur en Armenie : 3,3 milliards de dollars depuis
1998, soit 40% des investissements etrangers en Armenie.

Les commentateurs sont unanimes sur l’impact des sanctions occidentales
imposees a la Russie et notamment sur le volume des transferts
monetaires et les investissements.

RFE/RL relève que les filiales armeniennes de deux grandes banques
commerciales russes sanctionnees par l’UE et les Etats-Unis,
Gazprombank et VTB, ont affirme qu’elles ne redoutent aucune incidence
notable sur leurs activites. Areximbank, entièrement detenue par
Gazprombank, et VTB-Armenia ont tenu a minimiser l’importance des
sanctions a l’intention de leur clientèle armenienne.

Par ailleurs, l’Ambassade des Etats-Unis en Armenie a diffuse
hier un communique mettant en garde [les milieux gouvernementaux et
d’affaires] contre les eventuels risques qu’impliquent la cooperation
et le partenariat avec des societes et des personnes physiques >.

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 31 juillet 2014

jeudi 7 août 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

HRAPARAK: ARMENIAN MPS TO VISIT FRONTLINE POSITIONS IN KARABAKH

Thursday,
August
07

‘Hraparak’ paper writes that representatives of Armenian parliamentary
factions intend to visit frontline positions. A visit to frontline
posts in Nagorno Karabakh is scheduled for Saturday.

TODAY, 11:15

Aysor.am

HRAPARAK: DRIVERS PROTECTION LEAGUE READY TO GO TO WAR

Thursday,
August
07

A group of a hundred citizens – taxi drivers and auto dealers are
ready to go the border zone in case of need, the chairman of League
for Protection of Drivers Tigran Hovhannisyan told ‘Hraparak’ paper.

The League members asked Armenian defense minister to organize
military courses for them. “We ask the defense minister to organize
courses for us so that we could remember how to handle weapons,”
Tigran Hovhannisyan said adding that they all did military service
and just need to recall some details.

TODAY, 11:55

Aysor.am

VALLEX GROUP INVESTS $320 MILLION IN EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF TEGHOUT DEPOSIT IN ARMENIA

by Arthur Yernjakyan

ARMINFO
Thursday, August 7, 01:30

Vallex Group has invested $320 million in exploration and development
of the Teghout copper and molybdenum deposit in Lori region, Armenia,
Vice President of Vallex Group Gagik Arzumanyan told reporters,
as Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan visited the deposit,
Wednesday. Arzumanyan said the total cost of the project is $350
million. The remaining funds will be invested by the end of the year.

Teghout is the second deposit in the country by the copper and
molybdenum reserves. The biggest is the Kajaran copper and molybdenum
deposits in the south of Armenia, he said. The annual production
averages $180-$200 million depending on the metal prices, the vice
president of the company said. The budget’s annual tax revenues from
the deposit may total at least $10 million, Arzumanyan said.

He assured journalists that the company will be using the cutting-edge
technologies of field development and minimizing the environmental
damage.

“We seek to take all the necessary measures to bring the facilities
in line with the highest international standards. The mining facility
in Teghout is equipped with the cutting-edge technologies having no
equal in Armenia,” Arzumanyan said.

According to him, simultaneously with the felling activities around
the deposits, tree planting was launched in 2008. Over 300 ha of
trees have been planted in Lori region already.

As it was reported earlier, a Teghout CJSC has been created to
engage in exploitation of the Teghout deposit. The company will
launch activity by the end of the year. For the first time in the
last 14 years, nearly 63 tons of copper concentrate with up to 32%
of copper content and nearly 960 tons of copper concentrate with up
to 50% of molybdenum content will be produced in average annually.

Teghout closed joint-stock company was founded on May 22, 2006 by
Vallex Group. The sole owner of the company is Teghout Investments
Limited, Cyprus. 100% of the voting shares belong to Armenian Copper
Programme CJSC, owned by Valery Mejlumyan. In 1991, Teghout’s confirmed
reserves totaled 450 million tons of ore, including 1.6 million tons
of copper with a 0.355% content and 99,999 tons of molybdenum of
0.022% content.

ARAVOT: PAP MP INVOLVED IN SCANDAL

12:12 07/08/2014 >> DAILY PRESS

MP from Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) parliamentary faction David
Kocharyan is involved in another scandal, Aravot writes.

According to the newspaper, there was an argument recently in Hrazdan
regional branch of Gazprom Armenia company between head of the branch
Gagik Piliposyan and David Kocharyan. The MP together with several
individuals driving cars “attacked” Piliposyan’s office. It is being
rumored in Hrazdan that David Kocharyan wants his brother to get that
job and that was the cause of the conflict.

Source: Panorama.am

ARMENIA, UK DISCUSS SITUATION ON AZERBAIJANI-ARMENIAN CONTACT LINE

Trend, Azerbaijan
Aug 6 2014

Armenia’s Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan and Ambassador of the United
Kingdom to Armenia, Catherine Leach discussed the situation on the
contact line of the Azerbaijan and Armenian armies, news.am website
reported citing Armenia’s Defense Ministry.

The two sides expressed concern about the escalation of tension
and stressed that it is important to stabilize the situation. They
reaffirmed that the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
should be resolved exclusively though peaceful negotiations within
OSCE Minsk Group.

Armenian armed forces launched a diversion on the night of July
31-August 1, when reconnaissance and sabotage groups tried to cross
the contact line of the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops through the
territories of the Aghdam and Terter regions.

Armenia’s reconnaissance and sabotage group attacked the positions
of Azerbaijani armed forces in the direction of Azerbaijan’s Aghdam
and Agdere regions on the night of August 1-2. Azerbaijan managed to
locate the group and the sabotage attempt was prevented.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in
1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a
result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied
20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently
holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.