Author: Kanayan Tamar

Erdogan ‘not talking’ to Obama

09:43 * 23.07.14

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he has stopped
talking to US President Barack Obama on the phone, amid growing
strains between Ankara and Washington over Syria and Gaza,
israelnationalnews.com reports, citing AFP.

Turkey, a fierce opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and an
open supporter of armed rebel fighters, felt betrayed when the United
States backed away from military action against Damascus in September.

“In the past, I was calling him (Obama) directly. Because I can’t get
the expected results on Syria, our foreign ministers are now talking
to each other,” Erdogan said in a live interview on pro-government ATV
channel late Monday. “And I have talked to (US Vice President Joe)
Biden. He calls me and I call him.”

“I expect justice in this process. I couldn’t imagine something like
this from those who are championing justice,” Erdogan added without
elaborating, in an apparent jibe at Washington.

The last phone conversation between the two leaders took place on
February 20 after which the White House released a statement accusing
Erdogan of misrepresenting the content of the conversation.

A staunch advocate of “the Palestinian cause,” Erdogan has recently
been at loggerheads with Washington over Israel’s self-defense
operation in Gaza, which is now in its fifteenth day.

Erdogan accused the Jewish state of carrying out “state terrorism” and
a “genocide” of Palestinians and criticized the United States for
defending Israel’s “disproportionate” tactics.

The US State Department branded his comments on Israel “offensive and
wrong” but the prime minister hit back by saying the United States
needed to engage in “self-criticism.”

The US reiterated its stance on Erdogan’s comments on Monday, noting
they undermine Turkey’s political clout.

“Well, we certainly believe that comments like these undercut Turkey’s
ability to effectively influence the situation,” said deputy
spokeswoman Marie Harf, who called Erdogan’s “offensive and awful”.

“We will continue working with Turkey on a number of issues, but
comments like these really have no place in this discussion,” she
added.

Erdogan is standing in August 10 presidential elections that he is
expected to win.

Armenian News – Tert.am

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
July 22 2014

Nagorno-Karabakh settlement to be in focus in Brussels

22 July 2014, 13:17 (GMT+05:00)

U.S. co-chairman of OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick will meet with
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Armenian minister
Edward Nalbandian in Brussels on July 22. Warlick made this statement
on his official Twitter page.

“I just arrived in Brussels to meet the Foreign Ministers of Armenia
and Azerbaijan to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh peace,” Warlick said. “We
seek a negotiated settlement.”

The foreign ministers of the two countries are taking part in the
meeting of foreign ministers of the EU and the Eastern Partnership
countries.

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 four U.N. Security Council resolutions
on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

Christian Post
July 22 2014

Holocaust Professor Rejects Accusations of Israel Committing
‘Genocide’ Against Palestinians

By Stoyan Zaimov , Christian Post Reporter

A Holocaust Studies professor has rejected accusations by some world
leaders that Israel is committing “genocide” against Palestinians in
Gaza during the ongoing military conflict.

“It seems as if every time Israel defends itself, somebody points an
accusing finger and yells ‘Genocide!’ Raphael Lemkin, who coined that
term 70 years ago this autumn, would have been appalled by such abuse
of his life’s work,” Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of The David S. Wyman
Institute for Holocaust Studies, wrote in a JNS.org article on Monday.

“For the term ‘genocide’ to have any meaning, it must be used strictly
in situations that indisputably warrant such a determination,
according to the legal definition. Applying it or withholding it based
on political considerations will render the term useless,” he added.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made such accusations
during a meeting of Islamic scholars in Istanbul, AFP reported last
week.

“This is not the first time we have been confronted by such
situations,” Erdogan said.

“Since (the creation of the state of Israel) in 1948 we have been
witnessing this attempt at systematic genocide every day and every
month. But above all we are witnessing this attempt at systematic
genocide every Ramadan.”

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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has also reportedly
accused Israel of committing genocide, and the PA’s newspaper has
called the current war “Israel’s Holocaust.”

Over 500 Palestinians have been killed in the two-week long conflict
between Israel’s army and militant group Hamas.

Israel’s government has said that it had no choice but to carry out a
ground invasion into Gaza, which began late last week, in order to
directly confront terrorist tunnels and the constant rockets being
fired from Hamas into Israel.

“We’re sad for every civilian casualty. They’re not intended. This is
the difference between us. The Hamas deliberately targets civilians
and deliberately hides behind civilians. They embed their rocketeers,
their rocket caches, their – their other weaponry from where – which
they fire – which they use to fire on us in civilian areas,” Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview on Sunday.

“What choice do we have? We have to protect ourselves. So we try to
target the rocketeers. We do. And all civilian casualties are
unintended by us, but intended by Hamas. They want to pile up as many
civilian dead as they can, because somebody said they use – it’s
gruesome. They use telegenically dead Palestinians for their cause.
They want the more dead the better.”

The U.N. and a number of world leaders have called for a ceasefire in
Gaza. Hamas rejected an Egyptian-brokered truce last week, saying that
it wants further border restrictions to be lifted.

As for the accusations of genocide, Medoff reminded readers of the
history of the word, and noted cases where use of the term would be
appropriate, such as the mass killings of one million Armenians
between 1914 and 1918 by the Ottoman Empire, now present-day Turkey;
as well as Nazi Germany’s holocaust of close to six million Jewish
people between 1941 and 1945.

“In December 1948, Lemkin’s campaign was crowned with success when the
United Nations adopted the Genocide Convention. It defined genocide as
‘acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnical [sic], racial or religious group, as such,'” Medoff
wrote.

“Obviously, no reasonable person can believe Israel’s actions in Gaza
fit that definition. Then again, the world is filled with unreasonable
people.”

NKR Police presents details of Azeri saboteurs’ activities

KARABAKH | 22.07.14 | 10:53

A group of three armed Azeri saboteurs illegally crossed the state
border into the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic on June 29 on a mission to
collect information, the NKR Police said in a statement, presenting
details of the recent Azeri infiltration into Karvachar.
Enlarge Photo

According to the statement, Dilham Askerov (born in 1960), Shahbaz
Guliyev (born in 1968) and another person whose identity has not been
established yet, by penetrating the NKR on their mission committed an
act of espionage, while on July 4, with the use of arms, they
kidnapped 17-year-old resident of the village of Nor Erkej Smbat
Tsakanyan. The teenager was found dead on July 15.

The NKR Police said that the yet unidentified member of the group, who
was killed by Karabakh forces while showing resistance at the time of
the arrest, on July 11 killed Yerevan resident Sargis Abrahamyan (born
in 1971) and wounded Karine Davtyan (born in 1977) from the village of
Dzoraghbyur of the Kotayk region of Armenia. According to the report,
the incident took place on the 32nd kilometer of the
Vardenis-Karvachar road and the Azeri attacker acted out of ethnic
hatred.

Two members of the group, Askerov and Guliyev, were arrested and are
now in custody.

James Warlick: The number of incidents and resulting deaths and
injuries is also a setback in our efforts to work with parties to find
a lasting peace

by Marianna Lazarian

ARMINFO
Tuesday, July 22, 18:14

“We are concerned about any loss of life on the Azerbaijani-Armenian
border and the Line of Contact. The number of incidents and resulting
deaths and injuries is also a setback in our efforts to work with
parties to find a lasting peace”, U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk
Group James Warlick says in an interview with APA, when commenting on
the detention of the Azeri subversive group in Karvachar.

APA quotes Warlick as saying, “The U.S. and the Minsk Group Co-Chairs
are committed to helping the sides find a peaceful settlement of the
NK conflict. There is no military solution to this conflict. In
fact, the Co-Chairs look forward to meeting with Foreign Ministers
Nalbandian and Mammadyarov in Brussels on July 22 to discuss next
steps”.

He expresses hope that the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serzh
Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev, will accept the invitation to a summit in
Paris. “We witnessed that progress is possible when the Presidents met
in Vienna last November and believe that a continuation of that
discussion is an important step in progress towards peace. The
Co-Chairs and the U.S. stand ready to help in any way we can”, the
U.S. Co-Chair says. James Warlick points out that Ambassador Pierre
Andrieu has already started his duties as the French Co-Chair.

Armenian-Georgian Lines of Demarcation: The First Swallows

Hakob Badalyan, Political Commentator
Comments – 22 July 2014, 17:00

According to a new law, Georgia will apply a long-stay visa
requirement for Armenia. The Georgia MFA has informed Regnum Agency
that the visa requirement will not apply to Armenian citizens visiting
Georgia for tourism. Visa will be required for travelling to Georgia
for long stays, such as business or study.

It is obvious, that at first sight this technical issue is a deep
complication for the Armenian-Georgian relations. Meanwhile, the
interests of Armenia require a maximum facilitated visa procedure with
Georgia, especially given the circumstance of Javakhk.

Instead, official Tbilisi is taking a step that is actually a line of
demarcation between Armenia and Georgia. What did Serzh Sargsyan mean
when he told Georgian businessmen in Georgia on June 18 that Armenia
will be a good platform for them to access the Customs Union market,
and accordingly Georgia would be a good platform for Armenian
businessmen to access the European market?

A good platform is normally cleared of barriers, not vice versa, even
if they are technical ones. Is it possible to tell that in reality
only lines of demarcation are developing dynamically?

>From this point of view, it is notable that the information on the
visa requirement follows the tough response of the Georgian Armenian
Diocese, as well as Armenia and Javakheti regarding the clash at the
Armenian church in Tbilisi. Is this a coincidence or is Tbilisi
announcing about the visa requirement to demonstrate that it will take
tough steps in response to attempts to give an ethnic-religious
coloring to the incident?

At the same time, the visa update from Georgia comes along with the
statements by the Iranian ambassador to Armenia by way of which Iran
calls the Armenian government to conduct an autonomous regional
policy.

The absence of this causes problems with Iran and Georgia, even if
Armenia does not need those problems at all. The point is that without
an autonomous policy Armenia becomes a serious problem for the region
and those regional players who can act as a partner to Armenia have to
take steps to defend themselves from the possible consequences of lack
of autonomy of Armenia.

It will not be a surprise if it becomes known one day that Iran is
going to apply a visa requirement for Armenian nationals. It may seem
improbable, even absurd but isn’t it absurd when two decades after the
collapse of the USSR Armenia and Georgia achieve a visa requirement
instead of a new level of mutual openness?

These lines of demarcation around Armenia will gradually become more
obvious as long as Armenia discards its regional interests and
security. In addition, the association of Georgia with the European
Union and the association of Armenia with the Eurasian Union do not
matter much. After all, Iran is not going to associate with the
European Union but it is obvious that Armenia with its inert attitude
and lack of an autonomous policy is irritating Iran as well.

– See more at:

Birmingham, Alabama, plans to follow Armenia’s example, introduce
chess in schools

17:15 22.07.2014

Birmingham, Alabama, is looking to make chess a fixture in its
schools, in hopes that it will allow kids to stretch their minds and
improve their analytical abilities, the Desert News reports.

The plan is to create chess clubs at 15 to 20 schools in the
Birmingham school system. The hopes reach beyond math, AL.com notes.
“According to Birmingham City Schools officials, the benefit of chess
instruction is not limited to math achievement,” AL.com noted. “It is
also known to increase analytical and problem solving skills, improve
memory and has even been shown to increase IQ scores, they said.”

But math is a big part of the picture. School officials cite a 1998
study that showed improved math skills after exposure to chess, AL.com
reported. “The researchers randomly gave black high school students
from the rural South 120 hours of chess instruction. They then
administered math proficiency tests and found that students who
received the chess instruction scored better than those who did not.”

“Chess allows students to think critically, to strategize, to plan
moves several steps ahead, and to think about consequences of moves,”
said Dr. Chad Witherspoon, superintendent of the Birmingham City
Schools in a new promotional video. “It gives students an opportunity
to think at a different level.”

Across the Atlantic a similar chess push is underway, as an
ideologically diverse group of political leaders in the United Kingdom
is now pushing for chess integration into public schools.

Yasmin Qureshi, a Member of Parliament, argued that all state primary
schools should have chess as part of the curriculum and should be made
a sport with access to sports funding, according to a report in the
Telegraph.

“The skills involved in playing chess are actually skills that a lot
of young people can benefit from learning, especially children who
have problems with attention and hyperactivity,” Qureshi said.

In 2011 chess became a compulsory feature in public schools in
Armenia, a nation obsessed with the game. Armenia invested $1.5
million to create textbooks and curricula, train instructors and buy
equipment.

“We hope that the Armenian teaching model might become among the best
in the world,” Armen Ashotyan told The Associated Press at the time.

“By incorporating chess as part of the curriculum you are including a
game, and that’s how kids see it,” said Wendi Fischer, executive
director of the US Foundation for Chess in the same AP report. “They
think they’re focused on fun. So I think it is a great way to cross
over between a true hardcore curriculum that’s mandatory and the young
children being able to play and explore and have fun.”

Armenia’s Consulate General opens in Lyon

14:19 22.07.2014

The Armenian Consulate General was opened in Lyon on July 21 in a
ceremony attended by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian,
Prefect of Ron-Alp Jean-Francois Carenso, Lyon Mayor Gérard Collomb
and President of the General Council of Ron Daniel Chouseville.

Present at the ceremony were also Charles Aznavour, French lawmakers,
politicians, public and culture figures, heads of Armenian
organizations, media representatives.

In his opening remarks Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian attached
importance to the establishment of the Armenian Consulate General in
Lyon, underlining that Lyon and Ron-Alp play an important role in the
development of comprehensive relations between Armenia and France.

“The first records of the Armenian presence in Lyon date back to the
Middle Ages. The first Armenians were merchants, and later, Armenian
silk producers settled and worked in this region,” Minister Nalbandian
said.

“Thousands of survivors of the Armenian Genocide found their second
Homeland in Lyon, Valans, Grenoble, Vien, Roman, Viliorban,
Sent-Etien, Desin, Sent-Chamon and elsewhere. They integrated into the
French society. They have made and continue making their contributions
to the advancement of Ron-Alp and its cities,” the Minister said.

With the Armenian churches, monuments, schools, cultural and sports
centers, the region of Ron-Alp is an evidence of the high level of
integration of Armenians and strong ties with Armenia, he added.

Minister Nalbandian expressed gratitude to the regional and municipal
authorities of Lyon and Ron-Alp, to the Armenian organizations and
citizens for the continuous support and contribution to the
reinforcement of Armenian-French friendship.

Other speakers at the ceremony included Prefect of Ron-Alp
Jean-Francois Carenso, Lyon Mayor Gérard Collomb and President of the
General Council of Ron Daniel Chouseville.

After the speeches the Armenian flag was raised in front of the
Consulate General to the sound of the Armenian national anthem, after
which Edward Nalbandian, Charles Aznavour, Jean-Francois Carenso,
Gerard Colomb, Daniel Chouseville and Nikolay Sarkisov cut the red
ribbon.

The opening ceremony was widely covered by French media.

Next session of Armenian Ukrainian intergovernmental commission will
be held at the end of the year in Yerevan

YEREVAN, July 22. / ARKA /. The next session of the Armenian-Ukrainian
intergovernmental commission will be held at the end of the year in
Yerevan, Ukrainian ambassador to Armenia, Ivan Kukhta, said today.

He said the session will discuss the prospects for further economic
cooperation and, in particular, customs tariffs in the light of
Armenia’s imminent accession to the Russia-led Customs Union and
Ukraine’s ratification of the Association Agreement with the European
Union.

“Both Armenia and Ukraine are interested in boosting their bilateral
relations on political, economic, cultural and humanitarian fronts,”
Kukhta said at a press conference on Tuesday.

He recalled that a major portion of Ukrainian exports to Armenia is
made of building metals, agricultural products and confectionery.
Armenia exports to Ukraine brandy, agricultural and fish products.

According to official data, Armenian-Ukrainian trade turnover in 2013
fell by 5 percent from the previous year to $241.8 million. In the
first five months of 2014 it fell further by almost 19 percent from
the year earlier to $74.4 million.

The ambassador said that according to various estimates, there are
about 450 thousands Armenians living in Ukraine. There is also a large
number of Armenian architectural and cultural monuments, he said.

“Ukraine is doing everything possible so that all ethnic groups feel
themselves as full citizens of the country, have opportunity to learn
their languages, culture and history. Thus, the Lvov municipality in
western Ukraine released 4 million hryvnas for the restoration of
frescoes of the Armenian Cathedral in the city,’ he said. -0-

– See more at:

ARMENIE
Un groupe azerbaïdjanais de > définitivement neutralisé

L’ensemble de la presse reproduit le communiqué du > du HK, selon lequel ses forces armées ont pu repousser avec
succès et neutraliser un commando armé azerbaïdjanais, qui avait tenté
de s’infiltrer sur le territoire du HK du côté de Kelbadjar, à partir
du 10 juillet. Selon Hayots Achkhar, le 11 juillet dernier, l’un des > azerbaïdjanais aurait attaqué un véhicule civil près de
Kelbadjar, tuant le chauffeur, un major de l’armée du HK, et blessant
son épouse. Lors d’une opération spéciale des forces armées du HK, ce
> azerbaïdjanais a été tué. Le Ministre de la Défense de la
RA, Seyran Ohanian, a rendu visite à cette femme blessée à l’hôpital
militaire de Erevan. Outre ce > neutralisé, le > du HK a fait état de la capture d’un Azerbaïdjanais.
Le > du HK a affiché sur son site des photos de l’homme
ainsi que d’un fusil d’assaut, pistolet, grenades à main et un drapeau
azerbaïdjanais qu’on lui aurait confisqués. Le Ministère
azerbaïdjanais de la Défense a aussitôt démenti le lien de ce
ressortissant avec les forces armées de l’Azerbaïdjan, ce qui a
conduit le > du HK à déclarer que
l’Azerbaïdjan semblait méconnaître ses ressortissants, tout en
essayant d’obtenir pour eux un statut de prisonnier de guerre. Le > rappelle que l’article 4 de la Convention de Genève
définissait nettement ce statut, qui ne saurait en aucun cas être
attribué aux > azerbaïdjanais, ceux-ci faisant partie d’un
> azerbaïdjanais.

Par ailleurs, l’annonce de la capture de cet Azerbaïdjanais a coïncidé
avec la confirmation officielle de la disparition d’un jeune Arménien
gé de 17 ans de Kelbadjar, Smbat Tsakanian. Les > de
Stepanakert n’excluent pas qu’il ait été enlevé par les >
azerbaïdjanais.

Enfin, les quotidiens du 12 juillet relèvent que, la veille, un soldat
arménien avait été tué par une balle azerbaïdjanaise dans une position
avancée au sud-est de la ligne de contact des forces armées du HK et
d’Azerbaïdjan.

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Arménie en
date du 15 juillet 2014

mardi 22 juillet 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com