ITAR-TASS, Russia July 20, 2017 Thursday 9:25 AM GMT Lawyer says jailed blogger Lapshin may be extradited to Russia, Israel or Ukraine BAKU July 20 HIGHLIGHT: Travel blogger Alexander Lapshin, who was sentenced by Azerbaijan on Thursday to three years behind bars over his visit to a disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, may be extradited to one of three countries where he holds citizenship, his lawyer Eduard Chernin told TASS. BAKU, July 20. /TASS/. Travel blogger Alexander Lapshin, who was sentenced by Azerbaijan on Thursday to three years behind bars over his visit to a disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, may be extradited to one of three countries where he holds citizenship, his lawyer Eduard Chernin told TASS. "Extradition is possible, this is envisaged by the law. Under international conventions, Lapshin may be extradited if Russia, Israel or Ukraine, of which he is citizen, file requests," the lawyer said. The blogger should announce his wish to be extradited. "Now there are no particular plans here," he added. The lawyer said his client should decide whether to appeal the sentence. Chernin said the court’s decision is "far more than good," stressing that "further procedural steps will be taken upon agreement with Lapshin." Earlier on Thursday, a court on grave crimes in Baku sentenced Lapshin to three years behind bars over his visit to Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed border region between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The court did not find Lapshin guilty of calling for violating Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, noting that the charges pressed against him "were not proved during the investigation." The prosecutors demanded sentencing Lapshin to six years and a half in prison. Lapshin was detained in the Belarusian capital of Minsk in December 2016 at Baku’s request. He was flown to Baku on February 7 and handed over to the Azerbaijani State Security Service. Azerbaijan’s prosecutors opened criminal cases against him envisaging jail terms of between five and eight years. Nagorno-Karabakh sought independence from Azerbaijan at the end of the 1980s, which resulted in a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia that claimed the lives of 25,000-30,000 people between 1988 and 1994. Since then, the territory has been controlled by Armenia.
Category: 2017
Germany vows economic steps against Turkey as row escalates
Agence France Presse July 20, 2017 Thursday 4:27 PM GMT Germany vows economic steps against Turkey as row escalates Berlin, July 20 2017 Germany on Thursday vowed stinging measures hitting tourism and investment in Turkey and a full "overhaul" of their troubled relations, signalling its patience had snapped after Ankara's arrests of human rights activists. The government stepped up its travel advisory for the NATO ally as Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned it could no longer guarantee its citizens' safety in the face of "arbitrary" mass arrests, a step set to hit a sector crucial to Turkey's ailing economy. A day after his ministry summoned Turkey's ambassador, Gabriel interrupted his holiday and returned to Berlin to deliver his unusually strong comments towards President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Relations between Turkey and Germany, home to three million ethnic Turks, have been badly strained, particularly since the failed coup a year ago against Erdogan. Gabriel said Germany would review state guarantees for foreign investment in Turkey and urge businesses not to put their money there, and also reconsider its support for billions in EU financial flows earmarked over coming years for the long-time aspirant to membership of the bloc. A Social Democrat, Gabriel made clear he was speaking for the coalition government led by conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, and her spokesman soon tweeted that the steps were indeed "necessary and indispensable". Gabriel recalled that Turkey, having long seen itself as "a member of the European family", had levelled Nazi jibes at Germany, and accused Erdogan of worsening a crisis that Berlin had repeatedly sought to ease through dialogue. He accused Erdogan of trying to muzzle "every critical voice" with mass arrests in sweeping crackdowns over the past year. Gabriel stressed that Germany still wanted to rebuild relations with its long-time ally but that first Erdogan's government must "return to European values". Turkey's presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin accused Germany of "great political irresponsibility" in stepping up its travel warning and said: "We do not accept this." He pointed to Germany's general election in September, saying: "It's unacceptable to try and damage economic relations, try and arouse doubts in the minds of German investors, for the sake of petty electoral calculations." The Turkish foreign ministry later said that bilateral relations could not be based on "blackmail and threats". - Activists held 'hostage' - A Turkish court on Tuesday ordered six rights activists to remain in custody for allegedly aiding a "terror" group -- among them Amnesty International's Turkey director Idil Eser and Berlin-based activist Peter Steudtner. Turkey in February arrested, on similar charges, German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel of Die Welt and is holding several other German citizens. Erdogan has demanded Germany extradite people he blames for conspiring against him, mostly alleged followers of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of orchestrating the coup, a charge Gulen denies. Germany has granted asylum to some Turkish dissidents, journalists and military officers who feared being swept up in the post-coup arrests. German politicians and media have accused Erdogan of detaining German citizens as "hostages" to trade for Turks in Germany, but Gabriel said he "had heard of no official exchange offer". News weekly Die Zeit said Ankara's blacklist also includes large German companies such as Daimler and BASF, claims dismissed as "absurd" by German security sources. Gabriel, without referring to those claims, said that "you can't advise someone to invest in a country where there is no legal certainty and even completely innocent companies are linked to terrorism". - Escalating row - German-Turkish relations have steadily deteriorated in recent years, soured by a free speech dispute centred on a German TV comedian and a German parliamentary vote on the sensitive historical question of the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman troops during World War I. Erdogan has fumed over Germany's decision to deny him and other Turkish politicians opportunities to campaign in Germany, home to the largest Turkish community abroad due to its "guest worker" programme of the 1950s and 1960s. The NATO allies have also clashed over thwarted visits by German lawmakers to troops stationed at Turkish bases. The spat has cast clouds over Turkey's long-term push to join the European Union, and threatened a 2016 deal between Ankara and the EU that has stemmed the mass influx of migrants and refugees into the block. Top-selling Bild daily cheered that Gabriel "has shown Erdogan what happens when you break the rules. Finally! That took far too long! Hopefully he will get the message." bur-fz/dlc/jw DAIMLER
Beirut: Armenian ambassador visits Tripoli (Lebanon) Municipality
The Daily Star (Lebanon) July 20, 2017 Thursday Armenian ambassador visits Tripoli Municipality Mayor of Tripoli Ahmad Qamareddine received Armenia's Ambassador to Lebanon Samvel Mkrtchian at his office to discuss relations between Armenia and Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency reported. BEIRUT: Mayor of Tripoli Ahmad Qamareddine received Armenia's Ambassador to Lebanon Samvel Mkrtchian at his office to discuss relations between Armenia and Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency reported. The ambassador called for an increase in tourism between the two countries, saying that Armenians made a valuable contribution to Lebanon.
Azerbaijan Sentences Russian-Israeli Travel Blogger to 3 Years Behind Bars
The Moscow Times, Russia
Alexander Lapshin Alexander Lapshin / Facebook
In a setback for freedom of speech and human rights in Azerbaijan, a Baku court has sentenced popular Israeli-Russian travel blogger Alexander Lapshin to three years in prison, Azerbaijan’s Vesti.Az news reported on Thursday.
Prosecutors asked the court to sentence Lapshin to six and a half years for illegally entering Azerbaijan and “propagandizing the separatist regime” in Nagorno-Karabakh. Lapshin denies the charges.
“I’m guilty before the Azeri people only in moral terms, but by no means in a political aspect,” Vesti.Az cited Lapshin as saying in his final plea on Wednesday.
Lapshin, who holds Russian, Ukrainian and Israeli citizenship, was detained by police in Belarus in December and extradited to Azerbaijan two months later.
Azerbaijan targeted the blogger over visits to the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but controlled by an Armenian-majority government.
Lapshin’s offending blog post criticized comments made by Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev who said Karabakh would be returned by force. The blogger said Aliyev’s rhetoric, “reminds me of the rhetoric of Arab states in relation to Israel: too much pathos and zero results,” the Kommersant newspaper reported.
In December, the head of the Azerbaijan Human Rights Center, Eldar Zeynalov, said “nothing like this has happened before,” in reference to Baku’s arrest of a foreign citizen for writing on Nagorno-Karabakh, Kommersant reported.
“Those who visited or supported Nagorno-Karabakh were often placed on a blacklist and not allowed to enter the country; but never did they demand another country to extradite a foreigner on this matter; only citizens of Azerbaijan were threatened with this,” Zeynalov added.
On Thursday, the Kremlin said it would not intervene.
“This is not a topic for the Kremlin,” state-run TASS news agency cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
Russian human rights ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova, however, said that according to international convention, the Russian Foreign Ministry has the right to demand Lapshin be allowed to return to Russia in order to stand trial, Interfax news agency reported.
“Negotiations are underway,” the agency cited Moskalkova as saying to reporters.
No Armenians suffered in Kos earthquake – Foreign Ministry
Panorama, Armenia
No Armenians have suffered in the strong earthquake on the Greek island of Kos, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tigran Balayan wrote on Twitter, citing preliminary data of Armenia’s Embassy to Greece.
The 6.7-magnitude quake hit 12km (seven miles) north-east of Kos, near the Turkish coast, with a depth of 10km, the US Geological Survey said, according to BBC report.
A t least two people on the Greek island of Kos, while 100 others were injured at the popular tourist destination.
Some buildings were damaged. In the Turkish city of Bodrum, several people were injured as they tried to flee the quake.
The army is supporting the emergency services with the rescue operation, he added.
Matenadaran becomes a foundation
Public Radio of Armenia
10:42, 21 Jul 2017
Armenia’s Government adopted a decision on Thursday to reorganize Mesrop Mashtots Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts (Matenadaran) into a foundation. This shift is supposed to create more favorable conditions for the implementation of Matenadaran’s development programs.
The change of the status is aimed at boosting the efficiency of the management of Matenadaran attracting investments from different sources, including from the Diaspora.
The term “Armenian Genocide” is under a ban in the Turkish parliament
Public Radio of Armenia
11:42, 21 Jul 2017
From now on mentioning Armenian Genocide in the Turkish parliament will entail punishment.
The Turkish parliament’s constitutional committee passed a bill package submitted for debates by the ruling AK party and the Nationalist Movement Party. The bill package stipulates a number of changes in the internal rules of procedure of the legislative body.
Among the bill’s other provisions lawmakers are banned from mentioning the Armenian Genocide in the parliament.
The Democratic People’s Party lawmakers left the hall in token of protest.
The bill stipulates a punishment for those lawmakers who break the rule by “insulting the history and common past of the Turkish people” that is using the term “Armenian Genocide” while speaking about the “events of 1915”. The ban also includes terms like “Kurdistan”, “Kurdish regions”.
Garo Paylan, People’s Democratic Party lawmaker, who is of Armenian origin, called the bill “a nationalist authoritarian coalition proposal of the AK and NMP parties”. The opposition Republican People’s Party lawmaker of Armenian origin Selina Dogan is also opposed to the bill, saying that nobody should insult Turkish people’s history but neither should other peoples’ history be insulted.
Germany overhauls Turkey policy
Public Radio of Armenia
12:06, 21 Jul 2017
Germany is sharpening its policy toward Turkey in response to imprisonments of journalists and human rights activists, Deutsche Welle reports. The new tone together with an increased travel warning has been met with outrage in Ankara.
Germany’s foreign minister interrupted his vacation on the North Sea to return to Berlin to deliver the most strongly worded statement yet against Turkey’s imprisonment of German journalists and human rights activists.
Gabriel said that Germans traveling to Turkey were incurring “risks,” and the ministry website recommended Germans should exercise “heightened caution” when visiting Turkey since “consular access” to Germans detained in Turkey had been “restricted in violation of the obligations of international law.”
The re-calibration of Germany’s Turkey policy came after a court in Istanbul ordered six human rights activists, including Peter Steudtner from Berlin, to investigative custody on Tuesday. Turkey accuses them of supporting terrorism. Gabriel specifically mentioned Steudtner.
“These accusations are obviously unfounded and have simply been dragged out irrationally,” the foreign minister said, adding that Steudtner had taken no position on current Turkish politics and was quite possibly present in the country for the first time.
The Amnesty International representative was arrested earlier this month at a conference in Istanbul while teaching Turkish colleagues about IT security and non-violent conflict resolution. Eight other Germans are currently in investigative custody.
Turkey has accused Germany of interfering in its internal affairs. There has been speculation that Erdogan is using the German detainees essentially as hostages in an attempt to force Berlin to deport Turkish citizens in Germany whom Ankara considers terrorists.
Other German politicians have called for a range of measures to punish Turkey from general economic sanctions to a cancellation of the deal between the EU and Turkey on refugees.
The Turkish government criticized Gabriel’s remarks and the announced change in the German position. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu meanwhile reacted by accusing Germany of harboring terrorists:
Cavusoglu said on Twitter that “As a country providing shelter to PKK and FETO terrorists in its own territory, statements by Germany are just double standards and unacceptable,” referring to the outlawed, militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the religious-inspired network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen that Ankara blames for the July 15, 2016 failed coup.
Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, meanwhile said: “We strongly condemn statements that German citizens who travel to Turkey are not safe and that German companies in Turkey should have hesitations and concerns.”
The Chairman of the Commission for Foreign Affairs Taka Ozhan, a member of Erdogan’s AKP party, repeated Turkish accusations that Germany is harboring Turkish citizens who are trying to overthrow the government – in particular, Kurdish separatists and members of the Gulen movement.
The number of Turks applying for asylum in Germany dramatically increased last year amidst a government crackdown after the failed Turkish coup on July 15, 2016. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been arrested and more than 100,000 have lost their jobs in Turkey.
Russian-Israeli Blogger Sentenced to Three Years in Azerbaijan
Transitions Online, Czech Rep.
Alexander Lapshin admits only to ‘moral guilt’ for ignoring ban on Karabakh entry and criticizing the Azerbaijani leader.
Travel blogger Alexander Lapshin (pictured) will spend three years in prison for illegally entering Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh, a court in Baku has ruled.
Prosecutors said Lapshin engaged in “propagandizing the separatist regime” in Nagorno-Karabakh as well as entering the territory several times without Azerbaijan’s permission, The Moscow Times reports, citing Vesti.Az.
Lapshin, who holds Israeli, Russian, and Ukrainian citizenship, was detained in Belarus in December. He was extradited to Azerbaijan in February later in spite of objections from Israel, a major arms supplier to the government of Azeri leader Ilham Aliev.
“I’m guilty before the Azeri people only in moral terms, but by no means in a political aspect,” Vesti.Az cited Lapshin as telling the court on Wednesday.
JTA reports that Lapshin, 40, of Haifa, admitted entering Nagorno-Karabakh twice but told the court he was not aware of the Azerbaijani law against visiting the territory, which remains formally part of Azerbaijan 23 years after a ceasefire ended the bitter war with Armenia which ended with the territory and surrounding areas under Armenian control.
He apologized to the court for insulting Aliev in his blog. In the offending blog post he criticized Aliev’s statement that Azerbaijan could take Karabakh back by force, saying Aliev’s language “reminds me of the rhetoric of Arab states in relation to Israel: too much pathos and zero results,” according to the Moscow paper, citing Kommersant.
Russia would not request Lapshin’s extradition from Azerbaijan, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday, RIA Novosti reported, according to the Azeri news agency APA.
Russian human rights ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova, however, said international conventions entitle Russia to demand Lapshin’s extradition in order to stand trial, and that “negotiations are under way,” The Moscow Times cites Interfax as reporting.
- Azerbaijani and Armenian forces have been locked in stalemate over Nagorno-Karabakh for years, and exchanges of gunfire occur almost daily. Tensions have been elevated since major clashes in April 2016 killed dozens of soldiers and civilians.
- Azerbaijan has used advanced Israeli short-range Spike missiles against Armenian forces, Jerusalem Online reported in June. Azerbaijan has purchased billions of dollars worth of Israeli arms in the past few years.
- Rights activists and Azeri dissidents say freedom of _expression_ and the independent media are at a low ebb under the Aliev regime. Although few local journalists now dare criticize the government, Aliev was honored as a “Friend of Journalists” by the Azerbaijani Press Council yesterday to mark the occasion of the opening of a new apartment building for journalists.
- All freedoms, including the freedom of speech, are guaranteed in Azerbaijan, Aliev said at the opening ceremony for the building, APA reports.
Alexander Iskandaryan: Azerbaijan realizes neither negotiations nor a war are anywhere in sight for Karabakh settlement
Panorama, Armenia
Nothing unexpected happened in Artsakh as the results of the presidential elections held on July 19 were widely anticipated, political scientist Alexander Iskandaryan told a press conference on Friday.
Asked whether Bako Sahakyan’s reelection to the president’s post undermines democratic foundations of the Artsakh Republic, Iskandaryan referred to the special phase of the country development, suggesting Karabakh has own logic and pattern of development.
Iskandaryan reflected on the incidents at the Line of Contact between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, dismissing any link between the presidential elections and the border escalation.
“Azerbaijan realizes neither negotiations nor a war are anywhere in sight for Karabakh settlement, subsequently there is the growing concern the situation will remain unchanged,” the expert said, expressing pessimistic over the conflict settlement or a breakthrough in the nearest future.
“Azerbaijan has adopted a tactic of exerting pressure on the Armenian sides. At this phase Azerbaijan looks like Egypt of Mubarak era or Libya under Gaddafi ruling,” Iskandaryan noted.