Author: Kalantarian Kevo

AZERBAIJAN’S PRESIDENT RECEIVES SECRETARY GENERAL OF ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC COOPERATION

Trend
June 4 2012
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev received on Monday Secretary
General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin
Ihsanoglu.

The OIC Secretary General congratulated President Ilham Aliyev on
excellent organization of the Eurovision-2012 song contest.

Ihsanoglu pointed out that OIC would continue to support fair
settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

They praised successful development of cooperation between Azerbaijan
and OIC, and exchanged views on prospects of these relations.

PROPOSED MILITARY SALE TO AZERBAIJAN RAISES CONTROVERSY IN WASHINGTON
by Joshua Kucera

EurasiaNet.org
June 4 2012
NY

The U.S. State Department is considering allowing a sale of
surveillance equipment to Azerbaijan, which supporters say is needed
to help protect against Iran. But Washington’s Armenian-American lobby
and its allied members of Congress are objecting, arguiing that it
could be used against Armenian forces in the disputed territory of
Nagorno Karabakh, as well.

The equipment in question hasn’t been precisely identified, but it
is some sort of surveillance equipment that would be installed in
Mi-35M attack helicopters that Azerbaijan has lately been acquiring
from Russia. The State Department and Azerbaijan are saying that
the equipment would be used by Azerbaijan’s border service, and an
“action item” by the U.S. Azeris Network emphasizes that the equipment
is required to police the border with Iran:

[I]t is the moral responsibility of the U.S. Congress and Government
to show their support to their strategic ally in that turbulent
region and stand strong with Azerbaijan. Such support should start
with statements and resolutions in support of sovereign, secure and
independent Azerbaijan, to supplying it with defensive systems such
as Patriot air-defense systems (PAC3), border protection equipment,
helicopter protection systems, simulators, Command and Control gear,
and any other defensive and border-protection military hardware
and software that would protect Azerbaijan’s energy infrastructure,
make it less vulnerable, and send a strong message to Iran to stop
bullying and threatening. We should show our allies that we value their
partnership and friends, and are not ignoring the threat Iran poses.

But Armenian groups aren’t buying it. Congressman Howard Berman wrote
in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (released by the
Armenian National Committee of America) says the equipment could be
used against Armenians in Karabakh:

Two months ago, my staff inquired as to the possible use of this
equipment by Azerbaijan. Just last week, they were informed that it
would be used on existing helicopters to aid in border surveillance
and “police-type” activities.

As Azerbaijan shares a border with Armenia, this equipment could be
used to identify and possibly target Armenians in the border area for
surveillance or for attack. I am also concerned about the message
that such a sale would send to the regional parties, both in terms
of perceived U.S. even-handedness and in terms of our seriousness
about persuading Baku to cease its bellicose rhetoric and agree to
Minsk Group co-chair demands that it remove its snipers from the
“line of contact” in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The part of U.S. law that limits arms transfers to Azerbaijan, known as
Section 907, includes a provision that allows the Secretary of State
to waive the restrictions if a transfer “is important to Azerbaijan’s
border security,” which would seem to obtain here.

Without knowing more about which equipment specifically is under
discussion, it’s hard to say what it most likely would be used for.

But the Azerbaijani appeal is an interesting one, focusing so heavily
on the threat from Iran. This was something notable on The Bug Pit’s
recent visit to Baku, how government officials repeatedly emphasized
the threat from Iran. A cynic would say that Baku is ginning up
the threat to gain Western sympathy, and possibly concrete support
like arms sales. But it’s also true that Iran has been rhetorically
aggressive recently, and that Azerbaijan’s strategic interests in the
Caspian are potentially threatened by Iran. So what may be happening
is that Baku sees an opening, while the world is concerned about Iran,
to dovetail its strategic interests with those of the U.S. and others
who distrust Iran.

Anyway, the issue for both the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides on
this issue seems to be less about the particular equipment and more
about whether Azerbaijan should be isolated because of Karabakh or
more closely embraced by the West. Berman’s letter alluded to the
“message that such a sale would send to the regional parties,” and
Adil Baguirov of the U.S. Azeris Network told The Bug Pit, Azerbaijan
wants a concrete symbol of support from the West:

The truth is it can get all the virtually same hardware from elsewhere,
probably even cheaper – but the point is to get the necessary military
hardware from a partner, with whom the allied relationship has been
described as “strategic” by multiple Ambassadors (Harnish, Derse,
Bryza) and even President Bush. As Azerbaijan has been sending real
combat troops to Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, and did a bunch of
other things for and with U.S., it naturally wants to be able to get
the military and security hardware it needs from its Western partner.

HILLARY CLINTON: I BELIEVE IN ARMENIA’S BRIGHT FUTURE

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 4, 2012 – 22:24 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – During her meeting with journalists in Yerevan, U.S.
Secretary of State said she’s glad to be in Armenia again and hailed
the warm welcome she was given.

As Hillary Clinton said, “today, we’re looking back on the way we
passed and assess what can be done in future.”

In her speech, the Secretary of State dwelled on U.S.-Armenia
cooperation, U.S. assistance in Karabakh conflict settlement and
normalization of Yerevan-Ankara ties.

She also stressed U.S. interest to reforms in Armenia, specifically
in tax and customs sectors.

“I believe in Armenia’s bright future,” she said.

Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, in turn, noted that Clinton’s
previous visit of concurred with U.S. Independence Day and this one,
with the 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

As Nalbandian noted, 20 years ago, then Secretary of State James Baker
stressed Armenia and U.S. support of democracy as a unifying factor.

SAMVEL BABAYAN: IT’S ALREADY USELESS TO EXPECT ADEQUATE STEPS FROM INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Panorama.am
04/06/2012

“Azerbaijan realizes the dangerousness of its steps, therefore it will
constantly try to deny the fact that it carried out a diversion attack,
but this is impossible,” expert Samvel Babayan told Panorama.am,
commenting on reports in Azerbaijani media alleging that an Armenian
diversion group tried to break into Azerbaijani military posts, but
the attack was repulsed with casualties sustained by the Armenian side.

Today Azerbaijan once again grossly violated the ceasefire, trying to
break into Armenian military posts in the north-eastern region of the
contact line near the village of Chinari. Armenian forces repulsed
the enemy offensive. As a result of Azerbaijan’s diversion attack,
3 Armenian servicemen were killed; some soldiers were wounded.

According to Babayan, the incident was recorded at Armenian military
posts, which immediately denies the approach put forward by Azerbaijan.

“The impudence of that country’s leadership knows no bounds. Even under
non-beneficial developments, they try to spread useless messages. The
Armenian side should not sit idly by, because it’s already useless to
expect adequate steps from the international community. We must give
a harsh response to the enemy. Punishment is inevitable,” he concluded.

ARMENIAN -IRANIAN CULTURAL COOPERATION IS A MODEL FOR THE REST SPHERES: MEHRAN SHIRVAND

ARMENPRESS
4 June, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS: Cultural Relations between Armenia and
Iran are exemplary and unprecedented. Mehran Shiravand Cultural Council
of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran-Armenia at the briefing
with Armenpress reporter expressed his gratitude towards the officials,
exerting great efforts to develop bilateral ties.

” In Armenia we feel at ease, cultural connections existing in both
countries serve the basis for it” the interlocutor noted. Mehran
Shiravand high estimated the cultural sector in the development of
the ties between two countries.

“Cultural communication paves the way for the cooperation in the
fields of economy and politics” Cultural Council underscored.

STILL IN LIMBO: STEPANAKERT RE-STATES OPENING OF AIRPORT, BAKU RE-ISSUES THREATS
By Aris Ghazinyan

ArmeniaNow
Karabakh | 04.06.12 | 13:51

Last week Tigran Gabrielyan, heading the Civil Aviation Department
of Nagorno Karabakh, stated that the Stepanakert airport will be put
into operation this summer.

These are daring words, taking into account the fact that a year ago
even the opening date was announced of the “first flight”, however
it never took place.

The Karabakh authorities’ statement made in March of 2011 announcing
that the airport was scheduled to open shortly, on May 9, stirred
a whirlpool of outrage in Azerbaijan; Arif Mamedov, director of
Azerbaijan’s State Department of Civil Aviation, said that official
Baku holds the right to destroy the planes that would land at
Stepanakert airport.

Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan responded saying that Azeri
statements are words of sick people.

“The population of Nagorno Karabakh has a right to use air transport
services. I can only say that I – President of Armenia – will be the
first passenger of that plane,” he said.

Nonetheless, on May 9, 2011 the Armenian president did not become
“the first passenger” as the airplane never took off. It was then
that speculations started that Baku might actually fulfill their
threat and fire on the Armenian plane.

Then US ambassadors in Baku and Yerevan – Mathew Bryza and Mari
Yovanohich respectively – called the Azeri threat “unacceptable”. This
position forced the Azeri side to moderate the tone of its statements.

Elhan Polukhov, Azeri foreign ministry spokesperson, stated:
“Azerbaijan has never applied force against civilians and will never
do so.”

Bryza then stressed that all the flight security issues had to be
solved between Armenia and Azerbaijan before the opening of the
airport.

It’s hardly worth noting that “flight security issues” have never
been discussed between Baku and Yerevan, since Azerbaijan’s Defense
Ministry has recently released another statement flushed with threats
along its usual lines.

“In accordance with international norms, in case the air space of the
Azerbaijani Republic is trespassed, Azerbaijan’s anti-aircraft forces
will react to the aircraft the same way border guards would respond
to trespassers of the state land border. After a warning signal the
liner-trespasser will be shot down regardless of its type and nature”.

Apparently, high-ranking officials will offer comments on the situation
and the issue will most probably be discussed during US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Yerevan and Baku, which begins today.

NEW YORK TIMES ON KARABAKH ISSUE AHEAD OF CLINTON’S VISIT

12:22 . 04/06

The subversive act in Tavush region was organized on the day before
Hillary Clinton’s visit and it may radically change the agenda of
the visits to Armenia and Azerbaijan. A proposal is circulated in
the social nets to attend the civil society representatives meetings’
with her with black ribbons in memory of the Armenian victims.

In Yerevan Clinton will have meetings with RA President Serzh Sargsyan,
FM Edward Nalbandyan, as well as civil society representatives. This
time the Secretary of State will not visit Tsitsernakaberd.

To recall, within the frames of the visit in 2010 no official visit
to Tsitsernakaberd Memorial was included in Clinton’s agenda. The
Secretary of State paid a private visit to the memorial.

At that time the American embassy in our country said no media
representatives were invited to cover the visit as Clinton paid a
private visit to the memorial. Accordingly, Hillary Clinton wasn’t
accompanied by any Armenian official to the memorial.

After visiting Armenia, Clinton will visit Georgia, after which she
will visit Azerbaijan on June 6. On June 7 she will visit Turkey.

New York Times touched upon Clinton’s visit to our region. The
periodical writes: “War over Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s
displaced about a million people and gave Armenia control of
the enclave and another 9 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory. The
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe seeks a mediated
solution, but negotiations are long stalled. A fragile cease-fire is
frequently violated. Russia arms Armenia and maintains a military base
there. Azerbaijan uses its oil wealth for an arms buildup, and its
ally Turkey has closed the border with Armenia for more than a decade.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could suddenly become unfrozen.”

New York Times also adds: “In the North Caucasus, popular alienation
and militant violence are increasing. Two dozen Russian soldiers died
in an attack three days before Putin’s inauguration last month. Russia
relies mostly on force and economic subsidies to quell resistance,
but the strategy has not worked. Terrorism could be a real threat
to the 2014 Winter Olympic games in Sochi. Moscow might again blame
Azerbaijan and Georgia for aiding terrorists, as it did falsely in
1999 regarding Chechnya.”

How can the America and Europe lessen risks in the Caucasus? -the
periodical asks.

According to the author of the article: “America and Europe can no
longer keep the Nagorno-Karabakh talks on the back burner. Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev faces domestic pressures to act, but Europe and
America should caution him about the adverse consequences, notably
a broader regional war. Energy investment in Azerbaijan and a major
new gas pipeline to Europe, Nabucco, could become casualties.”

Putin to Hold Talks with Ahmadinejad

17:10 03/06/2012MOSCOW, June 3 (RIA Novosti)

Russian President Vladimir Putin will next week meet with his Iranian
counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prior to an international round of
talks on Iran’s nuclear program in Moscow, a presidential aide said on
Sunday.

The meeting will allow Putin to `feel the heat surrounding the Iranian
problem and see how this issue is perceived in Tehran,’ said Yuri
Ushakov, a former ambassador to the United States who advises Putin on
foreign policy.

Putin will meet with Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the 12th Shanghai
Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit which will be held on June 6-7
in Beijing. Iran is an observer nation to the SCO. This meeting will
be held before world powers gather in Moscow on June 18-19to discuss
Iran’s nuclear program.

`We weren’t too happy with the results of the last round of talks, but
we determined the mutual readiness to continue the discussion,’
Ushakov said. At the Moscow meeting, Russia will `promote the thought
that Iran’s right to develop peaceful energy under the oversight of
the International Atomic Energy Agency should be approved.’

In Beijing, Putin will also meet with Afghanistan President Hamid
Karzai, Ushakov said. Negotiations with Karzai will be `interesting
and useful’ for both Russia and Afghanistan, he added.

Ethnic minorities must be engaged in formation of Turkey’s new
Constitution – Martin Schulz

tert.am
12:23 – 30.05.12

President of the European parliament Martin Schulz visited Turkish
parliament where he talked about Turkey’s membership to the European
Union.

`It is not a secret that the membership process will be complicated
and will demand long time and efforts. Turkey has to make a number of
changes,’ he said.

According to Turkish Taraf, Schulz referred to the process of creation
of new Constitution of Turkey, noting, that the ethnic minorities must
by all means be engaged in the process.

`The center of each democratic process is the parliament – the center
of representatives elected by people. Equal opportunities should be
created for ethnic and religious minorities,’ he said, adding that the
EU will follow the trial of well-known Kurdish figure Leyla Zana.

Referring to the Cyprus issue, Schulz advised Turkey to be realistic.
He strictly criticized the statements of the Turkish side to suspend
negotiations with the EU after Cyprus assumes the EU’s Presidency.

Sea Coast Online.com
June 3 2012

Syria is part of the Cold War’s toxic debris

By Robert Azzi
June 03, 2012 2:00 AM

The Arabic coffee was thick, bitter. Unsweetened. Brought to a foamy
boil three times, then served steaming hot in tiny cups, foam on top,
grounds on the bottom, the perfect antidote to the platters of sweet
homemade desserts, filled with dates and walnuts, temptingly placed
before us.

Armenian, Arabic and English filled the air, with an occasional French
“bon mot” thrown in. We weren’t sitting in an 18th century Ottoman
palace overlooking Aleppo’s Citadel; rather, we were happily gathered
in a comfortable living room along New Hampshire’s Seacoast,
overlooking a golf course, on Easter 2012.

Sweets.

I had been invited for dessert to join three generations of an
Armenian family that had immigrated from Syria decades ago. Sittoo,
the matriarch, hovered over us, seeing that we were well-fed and
tended.

Making Arabic coffee (don’t ever call it “Turkish” in an Armenian
home) takes skill, and making it was left to Sittoo. Grandchildren
played in the front yard, coming in occasionally to hover around the
coffee table and pick out thick chunks of rose-water flavored “lokum,”
Turkish Delight, licking powdered sugar off their fingers after they
finished off choice pieces.

The afternoon represented the Syria I remembered: the Syria where I
played backgammon and smoked “nargile” on warm evenings sitting
alongside the Barada River deep in the Damascus Oasis, where I visited
Palmyra’s sprawling Greco-Roman ruins, and where I stayed in Aleppo’s
Baron Hotel, where, from a balcony in Room 215, King Faisal, in 1920,
declared the short-lived independence of the Arab Kingdom of Syria.

The Syria I knew wasn’t free, but there was freedom. The Syrians I
knew embraced hospitality and beauty in their lives even as their
government tried to insidiously impose itself on all aspects of their
lives.

The Syrians I knew believed in Syria.

Syria today is neither independent nor free. Today, Syria is the
besieged criminal fiefdom of President Bashar al-Assad and on the
threshold of full-scale civil war. Daily, new horrors emerge, deaths
are revealed, massacres are unearthed. The horrors of this war cannot
be contained.

Today, no one believes in Syria.

Syria is ruled by a cabal of Alawites, an off-shoot of Shi’a Islam,
who control Syria’s military, police and intelligence apparatus, as
they have since Bashar’s father, Hafez al-Assad, came to power in
1970.

What to do? I don’t know, and that makes me very sad.

Syrians, after decades of al-Assad and Alawite rule, emboldened by the
Arab Awakening, are today demanding basic human rights, social justice
and freedom. We follow their tragedy in real time, through Tweets,
texts and YouTube. We wring our hands as Syrians pay for their demands
with blood and with the bodies of their children.

What to do? I don’t know, and that makes me very sad.

Last year we supported Tunisian, Egyptian, Yemeni and Bahraini
protestors who fought for liberation. We watched when NATO
successfully intervened in Libya and helped Libyans get rid of
Kaddafi.

Now we watch Syria.

We want to believe it’s about human rights and freedom, but we need to
acknowledge it’s also about politics and power. It’s about Russia,
China, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. It’s about arms and oil and
about Israel and Hizbullah. It’s about the United States.

Sometimes it’s about the Syrians. Sometimes the Syrians are pawns.

Arm the opposition? Who are they? No one knows for sure. Not President
Obama. Not Putin. Not Romney, Not even al-Assad. I certainly don’t,
and the opposition won’t tell us.

That worries me.

Be careful what you wish for.

Firstly, not all Syrians want al-Assad deposed. The Alawite rulers
fear loss of power and retribution. The religiously moderate Sunni
middle class fears both a loss of prosperity and increased Jihadist
influences, and the 10 percent of Syrians who are Christian, knowing
how the Christian community was disenfranchised and attacked in Iraq,
fears the possibility of Syria being taken over by Islamists and
Jihadists.

I don’t blame any of them for their fear.

We should listen to their voices; we should listen to their fear.

Better the enemy they know than the one they don’t know? The one we don’t know.

The voices that urge caution in arming the Syrian resistance fear that
the opposition may be supported by Arab rulers who see an opportunity
to replace a primarily secular regime in Damascus with a conservative
Sunni Muslim regime – a counter to Shia dominated Iraq.

There is a real fear that it is Islamists and Jihadists that are a
principal driving force of the Syrian resistance.

Be careful what you wish for.

For many Arab states, as well as for the United States and Israel, the
fall of the Alawite, Iran-backed regime in Damascus would further
isolate Tehran in the region and fracture a critical link between the
Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran. Perhaps that’s true, but would further
isolating an already vulnerable Iran, at a time when we are in
sensitive negotiations with them over their nuclear program, be in our
security interests?

A historical note: During the Cold War the United States conspired
with many Arab governments against local nationalists, intellectuals
and secular leaders and helped oppressive dictators consolidate power.
Mosques, as sanctuaries, became a refuge from both the United States
and Arab despots, and it was in those mosques that a new political,
militant Islam took root, finding resonance in disaffected and
disenfranchised communities, phenomena that continue today.

Later, Professor Rashid Khalidi writes, “The Cold War was over, but
its tragic sequels, its toxic debris, and its unexploded mines
continued to cause great harm, in ways largely unrecognized in
American discourse.”

Syria today, I believe, is part of that toxic debris.

Be careful what you wish for.

Robert Azzi is a photojournalist living in Exeter