Author: Kanayan Tamar

SYRIA ARMY RETAKES KEY POST IN REGIME BASTION LATAKIA: TV

The Daily Star, Lebanon
March 31 2014

March 31, 2014 09:21 PM

DAMASCUS: Syrian army troops recaptured on Monday a key position in
coastal Latakia province, a regime bastion, state television said,
as rebels press a campaign in the region.

“Syrian army units have full control of Observatory 45 in the north
of Latakia province and are continuing to pursue terrorist groups,”
the state broadcaster said, quoting the military.

Observatory 45 is a strategic hilltop that overlooks several areas
inhabited by residents from the Alawite community, the religious sect
to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.

State television reported live from near the site and broadcast
pictures of dead bodies it said were “terrorists,” many of them
foreigners.

Last week, the rebels seized the position as part of an offensive
launched on March 21 in Latakia province, which had been relatively
untouched by the widespread violence elsewhere in the country.

Rebel forces, including jihadists from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra
Front, have also captured the Armenian town of Kasab and the nearby
Kasab border crossing with Turkey, as well as the village of Samra,
giving them access to the Mediterranean for the first time.

More than 300 people on both sides have been killed since the rebels
launched their offensive, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“The army has managed to install multiple rocket-launchers on
Observatory 45, but fighting in continuing in the vicinity of the
hillside,” said the monitoring group.

After a series of rebel losses in Damascus province, the opposition has
shifted its focus to Latakia, where the army and pro-regime militias
have rallied to defend the area.

On Monday, opposition forces fired Grad rockets at the Bassel al-Assad
airport for the first time.

The civilian facility is named for a deceased brother of the president
and is near the town of Qardaha, the Assad clan’s ancestral home.

Assad’s father Hafez al-Assad, who preceded as president, is buried
in Qardaha.

“The rockets landed near the airport without causing deaths or damage,”
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The conflict has become more complex with rebels once allied in their
bid to topple the regime now fighting against each other.

In the past 10 days, fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL) have been locked in battle with fellow jihadists from
Al-Nusra Front in the northeastern province of Hasakeh.

The Observatory said the death toll from the fighting has risen to
120, after fierce weekend clashes for control of Markada, a town on
the border with Iraq, where ISIL has its roots.

ISIL seized on Saturday the town which lies on a key route through
which the jihadists obtain supplies from Iraq.

Syria’s conflict in now in its fourth year, and more than 146,000
people have been killed since it began.

SYRIAN MINISTER: TURKISH GOVERNMENT CONTRIBUTED TO INCURSION OF ARMED GANGS TO ARMENIAN-POPULATED KESSAB

March 31, 2014 | 17:08

Syrian Information Minister Omran az-Zoubi said Turkish government
headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan by all means contributed to incursion
of armed gangs to Armenian-populated Kessab of Latakia province.

Thus, Turkey violated international commitments provided in particular
by UN Security Council resolution 1373.

In an interview with Syrian stat-run television, the Minister
noted that hostile actions of Erdogan government in the border area
between Syria and Turkey, in Kessab and other regions, prove Turkey’s
involvement in supporting terror, not only in Syria, but in Libya,
Tunisia and Egypt.

Omran az-Zoubi said the militants fighting in Latakia are not Syrians,
but international terrorist groups, including Saudi, Afghans and
Libyans.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

ARTSVIK MINASIAN CALLS ON CC MEMBERS TO CONSIDER PUBLIC DISCONTENT

Monday,
March
31

Representative of the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun Party Artsvik Minasian
presented his closing arguments at the hearing of the Constitutional
Court of Armenia (CC) today. He said that the authorities constantly
speak about demographic problems and measures to encourage a high
birth rate.

In this context the ARFD faction deputy discussed the demographic
risks related to the introduction of the compulsory accumulative
pension system in the country.

“We tell a citizen that he will have an opportunity to get the
accumulated sum if he gives up his citizenship. We tell a mother she
will not receive a child care allowance in case of having a baby. This
creates serious problems,” Minasian noted.

“As regards international experience, the defendant did not refute the
claim that there is no country whose model was introduced in Armenia.

In reality there is no such country – for the simple reason that no
model with such risks was introduced in any country,” he stated.

According to Artsvik Minasian, the system in its current form
contradicts many provisions of the Constitution of Armenia.

He called upon the Constitutional Court (CC) members to consider the
public’s discontent and recognize the provision about the use of the
compulsory accumulative pension component as unconstitutional.

Following the closing arguments, the CC members will go into the
consultation room to reach a verdict. The Constitutional Court is
expected to announce its verdict tomorrow, on April 1.

TODAY, 20:20

Aysor.am

LEAKED AUDIO EXHIBITS TURKEY DESPERATION – EXPERT

10:21 31/03/2014 >> INTERVIEWS

Press TV has talked with Sharif Nashashibi, journalist
and Middle East expert from London, to further discuss
Turkey’s role in fanning the flames of a civil war in
Syria.[]

Press TV: Mr. Nashashibi, this leaked conversation implicates the
upper echelons of the Turkish government in planning to carry out a
false flag operation that could get Ankara directly involved in the
Syrian crisis.

Why would Turkey want to directly get involved with the Syrian
situation and why would they want more instability in their neighboring
country?

Nashashibi: I mean, the only reason I can think of, personally I find
it puzzling, but the only reason I could think of, is that this would
be a means for Erdogan to shore up the flagging domestic support by
taking the troops into a war on the basis of self-defense that then
he would say: Well, you know, we have to support our troops.

That is the only think I can think of but it is not a policy I can find
most logical but this is the reason I can think that he would find any
reason to carry out such a dishonest and precarious and risky venture,
risking the lives of Turkish soldiers. I mean, they would be going
to fight and die on a false pretext. It does not make much sense to me.

Press TV: Well, Mr. Nashashibi, the Foreign Minister Davutoglu is heard
in this audio along with the intelligence chief as saying that they
could send … and talked about missiles even being fired into Turkey.

What does that say though, about the leadership of a country that even
they are willing to perhaps even hurt their own, if we are talking
about missiles being fired into Turkey itself and as you pointed out
even sending Turkish troops into Syria. I mean what does that say
about the leadership?

Nashashibi: Well, it shows the level of desperation that they will
go to such length for whatever gain that they think that they would
achieve from this, to put the lives of the Turkish soldiers and
civilians at risk and get mired in a war such as Syria, which is
so complicated.

So it is really a level of desperation and for Erdogan to say that
the leak of the audio recording is dishonest is really galling, I
mean the actions of the Turkish leadership are dishonest by trying
to dupe the public into believing that they are entering a war under
a pretext that is not true.

But as Eric (Draitser) said, you know, not just in the Middle East
but internationally, this is nothing new, the false pretext for war
is nothing new. I mean just regionally you can take the invasion of
Iraq, the Suez war in 1956, the Arab-Israeli war on 1967; there are
false pretexts all over the place in the world, in the region. So
this is nothing new.

Press TV: Ok, you talked about the desperation; desperation of what?

Are we talking about remaining in power or desperation of what? Can
you expand on what exactly you meant?

Nashashibi: Most of these wars that are launched on a false pretext
are meant to shore up domestic support. At times of war people rally
around the troops and rally around their leader.

So this is an attempt…, Erdogan has been under increasing pressure
domestically over various issues and, you know, all I can see from this
act is a way to divert people’s attention from corruption scandals,
from other authoritarian practices that he is doing, focusing it on
a war supposedly of national self-defense and shoring up his support.

This probably is the logic, because it is the logic of other leaders
who have launched such actions around the world in other situations.

Press TV: Well, Mr. Nashashibi you have heard some of the comments,
I want to expand on the last one and your take on that. Is this a
ploy in general by the West to, actually, get NATO directly involved
in the situation in Syria?

Nashashibi: I do not see any evidence for this and I do not buy into
a conspiracy theory unless there is evidence for it. So this would
be speculation. So I am not going to go to it because there is no
proof either way.

Press TV: Mr. Nashashibi the audio also points to the US’ involvement,
it talks about…, it has Davutoglu, actually, talking about that,
basically, John Kerry knows about the actual impending attacks and,
basically, just waiting to see when it would take place. What does
that say to you? If Washington and Ankara are directly coordinating,
it appears some would say false flag attacks?

Nashashibi: Well, again the leak is of what the Turkish officials
are saying. You now, Kerry is not in the leak itself so we cannot
say for certain what the US’ involvement is exactly and certainly
Turkey and the US are allies and there will be coordination but to
what level that is and what exactly has been agreed and what is not,
I mean knowledge does not necessarily mean agreement.

So, again, it is speculating. There is no American voice in the audio;
this is what the Turkish officials are saying. So, again, speculation,
and you know, referring to the conspiracy theory…

Press TV: Well, let me approach this question from this way. We know
that Washington’s goal is to topple the government of Bashar al-Assad
and also that is one of the goals of the Turkish government. Is it
possible that they are doing whatever it takes, these moments now going
three years into this war, that would it be unlikely that they would,
actually, reach this point, some would say of desperation because
of the recent victories by the Bashar’s government, of actually,
now trying to pull off something else that would get them directly
involved?

Nashashibi: Look, it is possible … but the US involvement with the
Syrian opposition has certainly not taken on the level that would be a
significant threat to Bashar al-Assad; so, again, it is speculation to
say how involved the US would be in this particular Turkish operation.

I am inherently suspicious of American motives in the Middle East
anyway, historically; this is the case but we do not know the level …

HISTORIAN AKCAM DELVES INTO CONTROVERSIAL MEMOIR BY ARMENIAN SOLDIER AT CLARK TALK

11:40 31.03.2014

Taner Akcam

Clark University’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Studies will present a lecture by Prof. Taner Akcam on April 17,
“On Truth and Memoirs: The Case of an Armenian Soldier in the Ottoman
Army,” which will explore the subject of a vigorous debate over the
authenticity of a memoir recently published in Turkey, the Armenian
Mirror-Spectator reports.

Akcam will discuss the case of Sarkis Torossian who served as a
lieutenant in the Ottoman Army during World War I. According to
his memoir, Torossian was a graduate of a military college and a
decorated Ottoman officer who served at Gallipoli and other important
battlefronts. Learning that his parents and sister were deported and
died in the Armenian Genocide, Torossian switched his allegiance. He
joined the Arab rebellion in Palestine and Syria and fought with
a French battalion against Kemalist forces in Cilicia. Akcam will
consider the veracity of Torossian’s account and interpret the public
debate surrounding the memoir in Turkey. Turkish scholars Ayhan Aktar
and Edhem Eldem will comment and respond.

Torossian immigrated to the United States in 1920. In 1947, he
published his memoirs in English, From Dardanelles to Palestine:
A True Story of Five Battle Fronts of Turkey. Following the Turkish
translation published in 2012, reactions in the Turkish press have
been intense. Some discredited the memoir as fabricated. Others
championed its authenticity. Akcam will discuss the veracity of
Torossian’s account and interpret the public debate surrounding the
memoir in Turkey.

A professor of history at Clark University, Akcam holds the Robert
Aram & Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair in
Armenian Genocide Studies at the Strassler Center. An internationally
recognized human rights activist, he was one of the first Turkish
intellectuals to recognize and openly discuss the Armenian Genocide.

He is the author of several books, most recently, “The Young Turks’
Crime Against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
in the Ottoman Empire” (2012), which earned the Middle East Studies
Association Albert Hourani Book Award (2013) and was named one of
the year’s (2012) best books on the Middle East by Foreign Affairs.

This event is part of the 2013-2014 “Critical History” lecture series
at the Strassler Center.

KESSAB-LIKE CASES OCCURRED IN 1909 AND 1915 – ARMENIA OMBUDSMAN

March 31, 2014 | 11:28

YEREVAN. – Human Rights Defender of Armenia Karen Andreasyan on Monday
issued an urgent message.

Andreasyan addressed the message to the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, International
Ombudsman Institute, European Ombudsman Institute, International
Committee of the Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House.

The Armenia Ombudsman’s message is with respect to the ongoing events
in and around Syria’s predominantly Armenian-populated town of Kessab.

“It is unfortunate, but the events similar to those in Kessab occurred
in 1909 and 1915, when the Turkish troops had forced the Armenians to
leave Kessab. Today’s killings and displacement of Kessab Armenians
are the third in their history.

“The intent of complete or partial extermination of national, ethnic,
racial or religious groups is at the basis of these incidents. These
actions should be accepted as the most serious challenge to, and
peril against, the international community as well as the fundamental
principles of human rights.

“We call on the international community and international organizations
to launch a thorough investigation to find out the extent the
neighboring countries, or other states (Turkey, in particular), have
controlled the situation in Kessab, [and] what accountability they
bear for the human rights violations there,” Andreasyan’s message
specifically reads.

In the early morning on March 21, armed militants from the Jabhat
al-Nusra Islamic terrorist group infiltrated into northern Syria’s
Latakia Governorate, which is predominantly inhabited by Armenians and
Alawites, from four directions. Two large groups of terrorists had
launched the attack from Turkey. About 600 Kessab-Armenian families
are currently sheltered in Latakia city. On March 23, Turkish fighter
planes downed a Syrian military aircraft that was conducting a mission
against the Islamic terrorists in Kessab. A group of Armenia parliament
members recently visited Syria to assess the situation in the region.

LA COMMUNAUTE ARMENIENNE DE BADE-WURTEMBERG STUPEFAITE

MANIFESTATION NEGATIONNISTE A CONSTANCE

A la suite de la manifestation des negationnistes turcs suite a la
representation d’une pièce de theâtre sur le genocide des Armeniens
pendant la Première Guerre mondiale a Constance la communaute
armenienne de Bade-Wurtemberg s’est dite “stupefaite et consternee”.

Le genocide est un fait inconteste reconnu par la communaute
internationale a declare le pasteur Diradur Sardaryan cite dans un
communique de presse. “Si la Turquie nie ce crime jusqu’a maintenant,
c’est juste un signe de son ignorance. Ils veulent maintenant aussi
en Allemagne fausser l’histoire ce qui est de la pure folie >>

lundi 31 mars 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

J. VAROUJAN SIRAPIAN : LETTRE OUVERTE AU LOCATAIRE DU QUAI D’ORSAY

Syrie

30.03.2014

Monsieur le Ministre,

Tout en admettant que le champ geopolitique et diplomatique est un
terrain où l’on joue un jeu dont les règles ne sont pas toujours
comprises par le vulgum pecus, où la morale n’a pas sa place, où
l’on applique aisement la règle du deux poids deux mesures, il est
neanmoins difficile d’admettre certains excès.

C’est ainsi que vous pretendez combattre le terrorisme d’al-Qaïda
(et de ses >) en Afrique tout en soutenant
les memes categories de barbares en Syrie. Syrie où recemment les
terroristes etrangers (et non pas des opposants rebelles) ont attaque
la ville frontalière de Kessab dont la population est majoritairement
armenienne, et detruit ses eglises. Les quelques photos ci-jointes
montrent, avec eloquence, les comme vous l’appeliez Ahmet Davutoglu lors de sa
visite en France le 5 juillet 2012. Turquie où, a la frontière de
Syrie, en presence de l’ambassadeur Laurent Bili, vous avez declare
le 17 août 2012 que

LES ETATS-UNIS ET LA RUSSIE PREOCCUPES PAR LE SORT DES ARMENIENS DE KESSAB

Syrie

En plein crise ukrainienne, les Etats- Unis et la Russie ont fait des
declarations exprimant leur preoccupation sur le sort d’une ville
peuplee d’Armeniens en Syrie qui a fait l’objet d’attaques par des
militants islamistes ces derniers jours.

Lors d’un briefing quotidien vendredi a Washington, la porte-parole
adjointe Marie Harf a declare que les Etats-Unis etaient ” profondement
trouble par les recents combats et la violence qui met en danger la
communaute armenienne a Kessab, en Syrie, et a force un grand nombre
a fuir. ”

Plus de 600 familles armeniennes ont dû fuir leurs maisons dans
la ville situee dans le nord-ouest de la Syrie après l’arrivee des
bandes armees affilies a Al -Qaïda. Les Armeniens se sont refugies
a Lattaquie, a environ 60 kilomètres au sud.

” Il y a beaucoup trop de civils innocents qui souffrent en raison de
la guerre. Tous les civils, ainsi que leurs lieux de culte, doivent
etre proteges. Comme nous l’avons dit tout au long de ce conflit,
nous deplorons les menaces constantes contre les chretiens et d’autres
minorites en Syrie “, dit-elle. ” Et comme vous avez pu le voir a
partir de la lecture de la conversation du president Obama avec le
pape Francis jeudi, ils ont discute entre autres du sort des minorites,
en particulier les chretiens, a l’interieur de la Syrie aujourd’hui. ”

Marie Harf a egalement evoque des declarations emises par les groupes
de defense a Kessab en disant qu’ils ne ciblent pas les civils et
respectent les minorites et les lieux saints. ” Nous nous attendons a
ce que ces engagements soient respectes. Les Etats-Unis continueront
a mener un soutien indefectible aux personnes touchees par la violence
en Syrie et dans toute la region, y compris les Armeniens syriens.

Nous avons depuis longtemps des preoccupations au sujet de la menace
posee par les extremistes violents, et cette dernière menace pour la
communaute armenienne en Syrie ne fait que souligner cette nouvelle
“, a declare Harf.

Cette declaration a ete suivie d’un echange avec un journaliste qui
assistait a la seance.

Il a declare : “Selon les rapports en Turquie, le ministre des Affaires
etrangères Davutoglu a prevu une provocation a l’interieur de la Syrie,
donnant une excuse a la Turquie pour envahir le pays.

Avez-vous des commentaires ?” Après avoir precise qu’il s’agissait
d’une conversation telephonique presumee, la porte-parole adjoint a
repondu :

The Globe and Mail (Canada)
March 29, 2014 Saturday

At 65, Martin’s still on the run

by JOHANNA SCHNELLER

When Andrea Martin turned 65 two years ago, she made a decision. She’d
had it with saying no to offers, with taking time out between jobs to
“normalize” her life, and with the stop-and-start career momentum that
that had created. She decided screw it. (She put it more colourfully
than that.) From then on, she was going to go for it. She was going to
say yes.

“When I heard the words ‘old age pension’ and ‘retirement,’ and
learned I can get into the movies for $4 cheaper, everything kind of
hit me,” Martin said by phone from New York on a recent Friday night.
“I have less life to live than I have lived. I hate to use an Oprah
word, but it really was an a-ha moment. I thought: ‘Life can change on
a dime, so I’m going to change it.’ I realized I’ve got to walk the
talk.”

Based on the day she was having, it was more like running: She had
been up at 6 a.m. to work on the final chapters of a book to be
published in September that she hopes to call Andrea Martin’s Lady
Parts (her editor at Harper Collins is almost persuaded). It began as
a collection of humorous essays, but has evolved into more of a
memoir, and the manuscript was due March 17.

“It wasn’t truthful to strictly make it comedic and superficial,”
Martin says. “How could I not include things that I’ve experienced in
the last 20 years? My mother’s and father’s deaths, my kids getting
older, my friends dying of AIDS or cancer, my relationships with
younger men.”

Relationships with younger men? “There was one,” Martin admits.
“You’ve got to buy the book to hear about that! I’m not dating anyone
now, but I don’t think it’s ever too late. I mean, love happens in
prison, so you never know.”

Throughout our conversation, Martin’s words tumble out so quickly I
feel like I’m running alongside her, trying to keep up. Her voice is
familiar, warm, inflected with her Armenian roots and Maine
upbringing. (People think she’s Canadian, because she spent formative
years in Toronto, but she’s American.) Her manner is intimate, just us
gals; she calls me by name a lot, occasionally adding “babe,” or
“honey.” Even when earnest, she has a can’t-help-herself comedian’s
delivery, peppering her chatter with ba-da-bump punchlines and the
occasional BURST of volume.

To continue her day: From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., she was in final
rehearsals for Act One, a play based on Moss Hart’s iconic book about
theatre life; previews began March 20 at New York’s Lincoln Center.
(For those in the dark, Hart and partner George S. Kaufman were the
premiere playwrights of the 1930s, winning a Pulitzer for You Can’t
Take It with You.) In Martin’s last turn on Broadway, in an acclaimed
revival of Pippin for which she won a Tony and that she left in
September, 2013, she had dangled on a trapeze nearly five metres in
the air, doing an acrobatic routine created by Cirque du Soleil. This
time, she’s playing four characters, which she says is equal parts
thrilling and gruelling.

Now, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m, she’s doing interviews for her new sitcom,
Working the Engels, which debuted on NBC and Global on March 12. She
plays mother to three eccentric grown children who unite to save the
family law practice. (In real life, Martin has two grown sons from her
former, 24-year marriage to Canadian screenwriter Bob Dolman.) The
three episodes I’ve seen take full advantage of her manic physicality:
She falls off a roof, makes hay with crutches, stomps her way through
a hip-hop contest. The series was shot in Toronto, where Martin keeps
a home, and old pals dropped in to guest star: Eugene Levy, Martin
Short, Scott Thompson.

To cap her day, Martin planned to squeeze in another hour of writing
before bed. “I have a lot of energy,” she understates. “Some of it is
genes. I’m healthy, I work out. Most of it has to do with attitude. I
have a real enthusiasm for life. I love what I do. I’m curious. Things
excite me, they make me laugh.”

It’s not like Andrea Louise Martin had ever quit working. She acted in
films (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and telefilms, guest-starred on
television’s Nurse Jackie and 30 Rock, appeared steadily on New York
stages. But she sometimes let fear get in her way. “Fear of
succeeding, fear of failing, fear of what people thought,” she says.
When 65 rolled around, however, she suddenly stopped caring what
people think.

“And the reason is, I have no control over what they think!” she
exclaims. “You win the Tony, some people think you shouldn’t have, but
it doesn’t matter! Because you know what? People are into their own
lives. They really care less about you than you think they’re caring.”

Other things Martin has learned: Botox and Restalyne make her feel
good, but no one notices. (I disagree there; it’s noticeable.) Five
pounds on her body don’t make a difference. Spanx don’t work. “We can
talk about happiness, success and love, but I think the most important
thing to own is one’s authenticity,” she says. “That’s taken me a long
time, a really long time, to honour. I was too concerned with pleasing
people. Now I can say: ‘I’d love to be at your function, but I’m too
tired.’ Or, ‘I really appreciate the note you’re giving me, but I
don’t agree with it.’ I feel like I’m an adult, and I’m going to talk
to somebody like an adult. That’s a very big thing for me.”

She has also found the secret to her comedy. “This may surprise you,”
she says. “It’s truth. I approach every comedic role the same way I
would a classic role. It’s all about intention. What does the
character want? What does she need? Otherwise, the stakes wouldn’t be
as high. That’s why you don’t laugh at bad sitcoms. Because nobody’s
playing the real intention, they’re just doing one-liners.”

Another comedic trend she opposes is crassness for crassness’ sake.
“Comedy can do whatever it wants, and there’s an audience for it, and
God bless,” Martin says. “But I want to stay clear of that. Maybe
that’s my roots in Second City. Cheap humour is the easiest laugh.
It’s much more difficult to write characters who are funny, than words
that are dirty. I mean, how many times can you say ‘vagina?’

“Now, hon, I have to sign off,” she finishes, her timing sharp as
ever. She tears into her next interview. I go and lie down for her.