Author: Torgomian Varazdat

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey was prepared for all necessary measures to tackle security threats along its borders, highlighting Ankara’s growing anxiety about conflict near its southern frontier in Syria, Reuters reports.

He was speaking on television late on Sunday, ahead of Monday’s meeting of a National Security Council meeting, where Syria was expected to top the agenda, and as local media reported Ankara was considering military steps to counter security risks from Syria.

Syrian Kurdish forces secured the town of Kobani near the Turkish border over the weekend, beating back Islamic State militants.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Turkey would never allow formation of a Kurdish state along its southern borders.

“If any harm is to come to Turkey’s border security, if Turkey reaches the conclusion that this garden of peace is being threatened, it is prepared for any eventuality,” Davutoglu said in comments broadcast late on Sunday.

“We will take the necessary measures to reduce the risks related to cross-border security.”

The pro-government Star newspaper said a possible cross-border operation would be considered at the national security council meeting, citing unnamed sources.

One option that could be considered was the creation of a 110 km “secure zone” within Syria, the newspaper said.

A crowd of a few dozen gathered in front of the Armenian embassy in Tbilisi on Wednesday afternoon to show their solidarity with protesters in Yerevan, DFWatch reports.

One of the rally organizers Rezo Karanadze from the Self-Organized Student Network, a grass-root leftists organization, told that the idea was to express solidarity with Armenian protesters who were suppressed by the police yesterday.

“We believe that Armenian public has legitimate reason to protest against artificially raised electricity prices. First of all, Armenia has a nuclear power plant. Also, it is weird that electricity prices in Armenia are the highest in the post-soviet space,” Karanadze said.

Another reason for the rally was to show that people care not only about liberal and human rights issues, but about socio-economic causes as well, he added.

“If nationalism divides us, our class struggle unites us. Therefore we stand here not as Armenians and Georgians, but as socialists, as one class, which is being exploited by the political and economic elites,” Karanadze said.

 

Among the protesters were few Armenians from Yerevan as well. One of them, Anna Davtyan, told DFWatch she and her friends came to Georgia on a business trip yesterday. She wished to be in Yerevan at the moment with her friends, but came to the rally in Tbilisi instead.

”We don’t understand what is written in Georgian, but it is nice to see solidarity. It is very empowering to have good, understanding neighbors,” Davtyan said. .

The current wave of protests in Yerevan started when the governmental Public Services Regulatory Commission decided to allow the rise in electricity prices.

Reports in Turkish media reveal the Armenian ancestry of a newly elected MP.

Mehmet Ali Aslan elected to the Turkish Parliament from the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) refused to utter the words “Great Turkish nation” at the oath-taking ceremony at the Grand National Assembly.

The MP said “The Great Nation” instead and was required to repeat the oath under the pressure of some MPs.

Reports in Turkish media reveal that Aslan is of Armenian descent, Akunq.net reports.

From June 17-20, Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, will be in Rome to meet with Pope Francis. Aphrem II was elected the 123rd Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch in 2014, according to Radio Vatican.

The Patriarch will meet with Pope Francis on Friday, who share a moment of prayer together on Friday 19 June. He will also have a meeting at the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, and will make a visit to the tomb of St Peter.

Ankara will return the European Parliament (EP) report on Turkey, the European Union affairs minister said, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

“We don’t accept the report and will return it,” Volkan Bozkır told reporters on June 10.

The Foreign Ministry also stated that the EP reports is one of the most “unfortunate” decisions taken by the body.

“The EP report is merely additions to the progress reports by the European Commission. What was lacking in the progressive report was added to the EP report,” he said.

A reference to a previous EP resolution on the “events of 1915” was added to EP’s Turkey Progress Report at the last minute, the minister said.

“On the grounds of this reference, we find this report unacceptable. It will be returned back to EP by our Permanent Rep to the EU in Brussels,” he stated.

Turkey has never accepted and will never accept that the events of 1915 be named as genocide, which has no legal and historical base, said Bozkır.

“The EP proved it has no broad vision. It does not help to bring Turkey and the EU closer,” Bozkır said, adding that “fortunately” the EP doesn’t speak on behalf of the EU.

“The EP’s report on Turkey does not reflect the real situation in Turkey-EU relations,” he said.

USC Shoah Foundation launched its Armenian Genocide Collection in the Visual History Archive in April. Now, a new information Quest Activity about the Armenian Genocide is available for students and educators to view in IWitness.

The introduces students to the context of the Armenian Genocide and includes clips of survivor testimonies about deportation, forced marches, hiding and perpetrators. Students engage with the testimonies using a built-in tool that enables each to construct a word cloud, a fitting title, a meaningful quotation, and a personal response to reflect individual feelings and perceptions about the story.

The Armenian Genocide claimed the lives of 1.5 million men, women and children between 1915 – 1923. Through this activity, students will learn about the history of the Armenian Genocide, learn to identify the differences between sources of information on the same topic, and recognize the value of multiple perspectives in the learning process.

Weeks after the first 60 testimonies of the Armenian Genocide Collection were incorporated in the Visual History Archive, 12 of those testimonies were added to IWitness. The 12 full testimonies include survivors such as Samuel Kadorian and Haroutune Aivazain, as well as witness Nium Sukkar and Henry Morgenthau III, grandson of U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau.

All the testimonies are fully indexed. IWitness now includes 26 new indexing terms that are used in the Armenian testimonies, such as “Young Turks,” “Tehcir Law,” “gendarme,” and “Euphrates River.”

– See more at:

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received James Warlick, the US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Press Service of the Ministry of foreign Affairs reports.

The interlocutors held a detailed discussion on issues related to the negotiation process on the peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict.

Daniel McLaughlin

High on an Armenian hillside, Gor Hovhannisyan eases a camouflage-green box from its hiding place in the trees and opens the back to see what he has caught.

This time, only a bird and a rabbit triggered the camera trap’s motion sensors. But far bigger beasts also roam the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge: lynx, bears, wolves and at least one of Europe’s last remaining leopards.

Across a deep gorge speckled with thyme and wildflowers, Hovhannisyan points to the snowy ridge where a Caucasian leopard was last captured here on camera; behind him, far below, a lush plain of farmland and fruit trees stretches away to Mount Ararat, an ice-clad 5,000m volcano just over the border in Turkey.

The refuge is breaking new ground in Armenia and the region, by leasing a large area of outstanding beauty and biodiversity and ensuring that local people contribute to and benefit from its protection.

The challenge is considerable in a country where environmental awareness is low, large predators are seen as a threat to life and livestock, and the rule of law is too weak to control either small-scale trappers or wealthy hunters.

Geopolitics doesn’t help, either. Barely 25km south of the refuge is Azerbaijan, which officially is still at war with Armenia after an early-1990s conflict. Some 10km further lies Iran. The leopard’s territory spans all three countries, further complicating conservation efforts.

Hovhannisyan is one of several local men who work as wardens in the refuge, patrolling its 4,000 hectares in a battered green 4×4 and on horseback.

Hunting ban

“All hunting is banned in the refuge,” he shouts, as the groaning 4×4 bounces beneath a troop of iridescent bee-eaters preening on a telephone line.

“We make sure no one’s in the refuge without permission, and we talk to the villagers. We tell them that if they hunt bezoar goats or boar or even rabbits, then there will be less food for the wolf and bear and lynx. And then they are more likely to come to our yards and fields and take a sheep or cow.”

People’s lives are intertwined with nature here, to a degree that is not always comfortable. In winter, hungry wolves sometimes come down from the mountains to snatch a sheep, chicken or dog from a yard; in spring and summer the shepherds take their flocks to the high meadows, into the domain of the big carnivores; and autumn is the bears’ favourite time to raid the valley’s orchards – though they also amble down in warmer months to feast on fruit.

“Last year a bear family ate lots of apples and damaged the trees, and they like to come for apricots,” says Ashot Manatsakanyan, who lives in Urtsadzor, a village on the edge of the refuge.

“And I’ve seen a bear sitting and eating watermelons like a man – splitting them open in his lap, eating the best bits, throwing away the rest and grabbing another,” he recalls.

“Sometimes a wolf comes into the village, but it’s the shepherds in the hills who have the most problems. Even with six or seven guard dogs, a pack of wolves can take a sheep or even a horse. They complain that the wolf is taking money from their pockets, but I’m glad the wolves are here – and they need to eat too.”

The refuge aims to boost and diversify the local economy through eco-tourism, and it helps villagers access clean and cost-saving technology such as solar panels, and runs classes for adults and children on nature and sustainability.

Conservation model

“We want this type of conservation model to be spread more widely through the Caucasus,” says Ruben Khachatryan, the founder of the refuge and director of Yerevan’s zoo.

Though it is barely an hour’s drive from Yerevan, there are few visitors to the refuge, which is supported by the UK-based World Land Trust.

Most that do make the trip dream of glimpsing a Caucasus – also know as Persian – leopard, but the chance is minuscule: only a handful survive in Armenia, and the entire population may be less than 1,000.

“In Armenia, people and leopards have co-existed since the early prehistoric times. Depictions of leopards can be found in many ancient petroglyphs . . . recounting origin myths and tribal traditions of ancient Armenia,” says Khachatryan.

“The inhabitants of Caucasus region should be proud of not killing the last of the species, and to have this amazing feline thrive in their territory.”

No one in Armenia has a better hope of seeing a leopard than refuge warden Hovhannisyan.

“Sometimes, when I’m alone on my horse in the hills, I wonder if it might attack me,” he says. “But I’d still love to see a leopard up close. It’s great to know that it’s out there.

Charlie Hebdo cartoonist “Luz” who designed the magazine’s cover image of Muhammad after the Paris attacks has said he is leaving the publication, the BBC reports.

Renald Luzier told the French newspaper Liberation that his job had become “too much to bear” following the deaths of his colleagues.

Twelve people were murdered when two Islamist gunmen burst into the Charlie Hebdo offices on 7 January.

“Each issue is torture because the others are gone,” said Luz.

He joined the publication in 1992 and said his resignation was “a very personal choice”. He will leave in September.

“Spending sleepless nights summoning the dead, wondering what Charb, Cabu, Honore, Tignous would have done is exhausting,” he added.

Within days of the attack, the satirical magazine’s surviving staff produced an edition with the headline “All is forgiven” above Luz’s cartoon of Muhammad holding a sign saying “Je suis Charlie.”

Texas State Representative Dwayne Bohab on Thursday pulled from consideration a misleading resolution (HR2309) “Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Black January events in Azerbaijan” he introduced late April filled with factually inaccurate historical information with respect to the events that led to the country’s independence as well as its policies regarding people’s right to self-determination and independence, reported the Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region, reports.

“The power of our grassroots’ in Texas against the persistent, yet failed, efforts backed by the Azerbaijani lobby to shamefully introduce legislation that blatantly misrepresents facts is a real testament to our community’s and organization’s resolve to pursue truth and justice for our Cause,” remarked ANCA-WR Executive Director Elen Asatryan. “We were particularly pleased to see Representative Bohac’s quick response and reconsideration to ultimately withdraw the resolution after gaining better understanding of the facts about Azerbaijan and the region,” added Asatryan.

Jeff Stokes, Legislative Director for State Representative Dwayne Bohac informed Asbarez that Bohac’s office had received numerous requests from constituents to introduce a measure such as HR2309.

“When we realized it was a mistake, we placed it on permanent hold,” said Stokes, who explained that per Texas law once a hold is placed on a piece of legislation, no further action is taken on the matter.

The decision to place a permanent hold on HR2309 came just 16 hours after ANCA WR worked with local community leaders and activists to alert Bohac about the facts surrounding the events that led to Azerbaijan’s independence, the corrupt and authoritarian regime of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the country’s gross human rights violations, coverage of which has increased in the American press most recently in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, under the headlines, “A Thuggish Regime Challenges the U.S.” and “The Two Faces of Azerbaijan’s Mr. Aliyev” respectively.

More specifically, late Monday evening ANCA WR Executive Director Elen Asatryan submitted a written statement to Bohac opposing the resolution on behalf of the regional, Dallas and Houston chapters noting, “The resolution gives the impression that Azerbaijan was invaded in retaliation for its independence movement. However, the truth is that troops were sent to Azerbaijan in order to protect the nearly half million Christian Armenians who were being subjected to violent pogroms and massacres throughout the nation in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Azerbaijan’s hostility was its response to the calls for independence by the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR), which was an autonomous region at the time, thereby demonstrating its repressive policies, which are contrary to the claims made in the language of the resolution.”

Asatryan continued on to state, ”Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has the dubious honor of being selected as the most corrupt person by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). The NGO’s finding is based on extensive reports and well-documented evidence that the Aliyev family has been systematically grabbing shares of the most profitable businesses in Azerbaijan for many years. Earlier this week, the Committee to Protect Journalists concluded that Azerbaijan is the fifth most censored and repressive country in the world, out of nearly 200 countries in the world. In its report the CPJ concluded that the ‘main sources of information in Azerbaijan are broadcasters which are owned and controlled by the state or its proxies.’ The report also noted that independent media outlets are subjected to harassment and prosecution by officials, and that at least ten journalists and bloggers are currently in Azerbaijani jails on fabricated charges.”

“This being a top priority, our local chapter and I specifically reached out to Representative Dwayne Bohac’s office yesterday to convey our disappointment and opposition to the resolution. Today when I called back to see if we made any headway, I was pleased to hear that the office had already pulled the resolution. This truly shows that each and every one of us can truly make a difference by just making our voice heard,” stated ANCA Dallas Chair Lucia Nazarian. ”Thank you to the Dallas community members for your efforts in shedding light and bringing the truth to the forefront of our Texas legislators,” added Nazarian.

“I am pleased to see that the anti-Armenian resolution was withdrawn and appreciate the diligence of the Houston Armenian community and proud of their dedication for the Armenian Cause, “ remarked ANCA Houston Chair Vrouir Frankian.