The European Court of Human Rights’ decision dated Nov. 17, 2016 on the Karapetyan and Others v. Armenia case is seen as setting a precedent against members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) fired from state posts. The court decided that the Armenian government had not exceeded its margin of appreciation by summarily dismissing senior civil servants who had criticized the government. It recalled the importance of “the special bond of trust and loyalty between a civil servant and the state.” The Court found this loyalty to be even more important “in societies which are in the process of building up the institutions of a pluralistic democracy. So as to ensure the consolidation and maintenance of democracy,” it ruled, states may introduce “constitutional safeguards to achieve the aim in a democratic society of having a politically neutral body of civil servants.”
According to an analysis by the Star daily, the case has direct implications for the state servants who were fired for FETÖ links.
While the Armenian case involves state servants voicing criticisms against the government, FETÖ members have been directly implicated in trying to topple the government through spurious corruption allegations followed by last year’s military coup attempt.
FETÖ, led by Fetullah Gülen who currently resides in Pennsylvania, U.S., through its operatives within the judiciary, police, military, other state agencies and media, persecuted anyone they deemed as opponents over the years. FETÖ, recognized as a terrorist group by Turkey, is also active across the world through what they call educational institutions, which are mainly used to generate funds for their illicit activities and recruitment.
Last year’s deadly coup on July 15, undertaken by FETÖ operatives within the military, failed due to serious public backlash. The government declared a state of emergency a few days later, allowing the firing of tens of thousands of public servants linked to the terrorist group. The government has also set up a commission to review objections to the firings.
As a signatory to the European Charter of Human Rights, Turkey is obligated to abide by the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. Many FETÖ members who fled abroad and those who were fired were looking at the court as a sort of lifejacket to return to their posts. The court’s decision closes the door on public servants directly implicated in FETÖ-linked activities.
There is no military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Mikser.
He made the remarks at the press conference June 12 following the meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Baku, APA reports.
He noted that peaceful settlement of the conflict serves the interests of the parties. “They should avoid rhetoric that can impede the situation. We are sure that OSCE Minsk Group will take more effort for solution of this conflict,” he said.
Australia supports sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” said Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific Hon Concetta Fierravanti-Wells as she met with Azerbaijani FM Elmar Mammadyarov.
They hailed the development of Azerbaijan-Australia bilateral relations.
Hailing that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the ministers emphasized the importance of expanding the legal framework and ensuring the development of economic relations.
Concetta Fierravanti-Wells hailed the fact that she was the first Australian minister to visit Azerbaijan, saying a delegation of Australian businessmen will travel to Azerbaijan this October.
Mammadyarov briefed the Australian Minister about the negotiations on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying the conflict must be solved in line with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council on the basis of territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders.
The two underlined the importance of parliamentary diplomacy in bilateral relations, praising the activities of the Australia-Azerbaijan Interparliamentary Friendship Group in this regard.
They also exchanged views on the development of cooperation between the two countries in shipbuilding, agriculture, tourism and mine-clearance areas.
The Commonwealth of Australia recognized the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan on December 26, 1991. Diplomatic relations between two countries have been established on June 19, 1992.
Azerbaijan exports crude oil to Australia. Butter is imported from Australia. The trade turnover of the Republic of Azerbaijan with the Commonwealth of Australia amounted to $7.83 million, including imports $7.57 million, exports $0.26 million during January-September, 2015.
Azerbaijan and Estonia have a great potential to deepen relations, especially in education and IT, Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Mikser said June 12.
He was addressing a joint press conference with Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov in Baku.
“We believe we should work to expand cooperation in these areas,” he said. “I hope that Azerbaijan and the EU will sign an agreement on strategic cooperation. The content of the agreement is very important for us. It will also have a positive impact on Baku-Tallinn relations.”
All these issues will be vital not only during the Estonian presidency of the EU, but also within the European Union in general, according to him.
“We have an ambitious agenda for the time of the EU presidency, in particular on the withdrawal of Britain from the EU [Brexit]. All issues are important from the point of view of ensuring security in Europe,” Mikser said.
Touching upon the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, Estonia’s FM noted that there is no military solution to the conflict.
“Peaceful conflict resolution serves the interests of the involved parties. I believe that there is no other format but the OSCE, which will be able to make every effort to resolve the conflict.”
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 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
The document on settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains the same, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said on June 12.
He made the remarks at a joint press conference with his Estonian counterpart Sven Mikser in Baku.
Mammadyarov noted that he discussed the promotion of the negotiation process during his meeting with Russian and Armenian counterparts in Moscow on April 29.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.
While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign state with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.
The basic elements for further negotiations towards a peace agreement have been agreed upon by both Presidents – the “Madrid Principles”, with small adaptations, have been on the table now for nearly 10 years.
The minister also commented on the visit of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to the region: “I cannot say what proposals the co-chairs will bring to Baku.”
“Currently, the mediators to the negotiation process are in Armenia. Let’s wait and see with what message they will arrive from Armenia to Baku,” Mammadyarov said.
The co-chairs will arrive in Azerbaijan on June 19.
The minister also stressed that Azerbaijan stands for the beginning of substantive talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
“Azerbaijan’s position remains unchanged. The status quo needs to be changed, because we all know what the consequences may be if it is preserved,” noted Mammadyarov.
The minister also stressed that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be resolved on the basis of relevant resolutions of the United Nations. “The UN resolutions call for unconditional withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from Azerbaijan’s territories. The issue of sovereignty noted in these documents is our common interest,” he said.
Mammadyarov added that all negotiations must be resolved on the basis of international norms and principles, and all UN member countries must abide by it.
Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.
EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn will visit Baku June 15 to take part in the negotiations on a new strategic partnership agreement between the EU and Azerbaijan, said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.
He made the remarks at a joint press conference with his Estonian counterpart Sven Mikser in Baku June 12.
Mammadyarov noted that he and Mikser discussed the Azerbaijan-EU cooperation.
The next round of negotiations as part of the strategic partnership agreement will be held on June 13 and 14, he said.
“We believe that we are on the right path to accelerate the process of negotiations with the EU, and we hope for success,” added the Azerbaijani minister.
Mammadyarov said that meetings with the Estonian minister were held in two formats – one-on-one and with participation of delegations.
“We discussed a number of bilateral issues, exchanged views,” he said.
Azerbaijan and Estonia have been conducting an intensive dialogue since April, since holding the meeting of the Azerbaijan-Estonia intergovernmental commission, added Mammadyarov.
According to him, currently about 10 Estonian companies are actively operating in Azerbaijan – in the spheres of construction and IT.
The Azerbaijani minister noted that Sven Mikser was also informed about the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the resolutions which were adopted on the conflict and have not been implemented yet by the Armenian side.
Mammadyarov also thanked his Estonian counterpart for the invitation to visit Tallinn.
Top British food writer James Steen’s recently published book on the world’s top 50 dishes gives fascinating information and anecdotal details on some iconic dishes Meals you must eat
Ants may not be on everybody’s menu, but according to Paul Steen an ant a day, or maybe a handful, is good for you.
In fact, according to the acclaimed food writer’s recent book, The 50 Greatest Dishes of the World, they are good for you.
According to Steen, given the right treatment in the kitchen they can be considered a delicacy. Hundreds of years ago they were ground to a paste and eaten with greens in the Far East; these days some chefs, notably Alex Atala in Sao Paolo, has put them on his menu at his restaurant D.O.M., ranked in the world top 10.
Atala puts them on top of a slice of pineapple and in a coconut meringue.
And, still in Sao Paolo, in Color de Hormiga restaurant (Colour of Ants) fillet steak is seared on the grill, covered in an ant sauce and garnished with dried ants.
Also according to Steen, caviar slowly but surely became a delicacy over the centuries, known by few but much adored by those who had the good fortune to sample it. It was only in the early 20th century that two brothers who lived on the Iranian side of the Caspian Sea really put it on the map.
Melkoum and Mouchegh Petrossian escaped the Armenian holocaust and settled in Paris. They so hankered after the dark, glistening roe, that in what Steen refers to as a remarkable act of enterprising entrepreneurship, they sealed a deal between the Russian ministry of foreign trade and the Paris embassy. Soon suitcases of the stuff started arriving in the French capital.
A kiosk was opened in 1920 and, Cesar Ritz of the famed Parisian restaurant, was made privy to the delicious aperitif and the rest, as they say, was history.
The Petrossian family still oversees the caviar empire and in 1998 Armen Petrossian became the first French producer to farm caviar. Today around 300 tons are farmed but still it’s not enough to make this an affordable treat.
Each Petrossian caviar house has a “caviarlogue” or taster and the reason it’s so pricey is because it’s all a matter of patience and how it’s produced.
Some caviar takes 18 months before being sold as Royal, Imperial or Special Reserve. It is classified into two species; wild and farmed.
Special Reserve is particularly rare – large eggs being a requisite – and should taste aromatic and be “perfectly balanced”. The beluga, sevruga and ossetra you may have heard of are species of wild sturgeon. Beluga is the one that is the most expensive because it takes about 18 years to produce eggs.
How do you eat it you may ask?
The answer is the simpler the better – and that’s even if you are eating the more humble farmed varieties we mostly get in South Africa.
Put a teaspoon on a piece of toast or a blini and be careful not to squash those precious miniature eggs when you do so. When you pop it into your mouth you should get a wonderful briny burst of flavour.
La longuer en bouche, that wonderful length on the palate as the French say, denotes the best quality.
Accompany with vodka or a vintage Champagne.
These are just two of the world’s greatest dishes in the Gospel according to St Steen. But if they don’t get your palate exactly dancing he also examines some of our more favourite foods, notably sushi, good old fish and chips, burgers, shepherd’s pie, that wonderful dinner party trick, Beef Wellington, Peking Duck, which is an art to make properly, and classic poached eggs with asparagus and hollandaise sauce.
Steen also delves into the origins of ice cream sundae, black forest gateau, Pavlova and more.
Exhaustive research and tasting went into writing this book and it’s a delight and highly entertaining to read, aside from being so utterly informative. If you’re a foodie you’ll love it. If you’re simply someone of the meat-and-two-veg brigade it’s still highly recommended to tickle to tastebuds.
ï¬ The 50 Greatest Dishes of the World by James Steen is published by Icon Books.
Genocide tale isn’t the turkey that Turkey wants it to be
MOVIES WITH VICKY ROACH
THE PROMISE *** Director Terry George Starring Christian Bale, Oscar Isaacs, Charlotte Le Bon Rating M Running time 133 minutes Verdict Historical drama delivers a powerful message
THE story behind this big-budget epic, which has been the subject of IMDb vote-rigging allegations, is perhaps more interesting than the film itself.
Before he died in 2015, the self-made billionaire Kirk Kerkorian funded The Promise to the tune of $US100 million to shine a light on the systematic extermination of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by the Turks between 1914 and 1923.
Turkish authorities have consistently refused to acknowledge the genocide. (As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama pledged to officially do so. But when he gained office, “genocide” was dialled back to “mass atrocity” because the US needed Turkey’s help in fighting Islamic State.) In this context, it’s entirely plausible that the stream of one-star reviews that flooded the website prior to the film’s release were politically motivated, as suggested by director Terry George (Hotel Rwanda).
But the response from named critics writing in influential publications has also been fairly tepid.
Oscar Isaacs lends a sympathetic integrity to the role of Mikael Boghosian, an Armenian apothecary who betroths himself to a young woman from his village in Southern Turkey so he can use the dowry to put himself through medical school.
This, presumably, is the promise of the title, but its potency peters out midway through the story.
The ultimate commitment is one of survival.
In Constantinople, Boghosian meets the charming, sophisticated and Paris-educated Ana Khesarian (Charlotte Le Bon).
The instant, mutual attraction is perhaps heightened by the pair’s shared Armenian heritage.
Further complicating matters is Christian Bale’s hard-drinking, heavy-hitting US war correspondent Chris Myers, with whom Ana is already in a relationship.
While the romantic rivalry plays out in a fairly predictable fashion, the horrendous events the three characters are caught up in during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire are little-canvassed enough to pack a real punch.
The Promise is no Dr Zhivago. But it delivers handsomely on Kerkorian’s original intent.NOW SCREENING
The Promise review: Romantic saga told against backdrop of Armenian genocide
★★★ M, 134 minutes
It’s old-fashioned. Terry George, director of The Promise, agrees with the film’s critics on that point.
Christian Bale and Charlotte Le Bon play two sides of a love triangle in The Promise. Photo: Open Road Films
The difference is that he believes it’s necessarily old-fashioned – a romantic saga built on the David Lean model by way of persuading audiences to see a film about the Armenian genocide. And it’s an understandable argument. There is not only the horrific nature of the Turkish government’s massacre of 1.5 million of its Armenian population between 1915 and 1922. There are also the difficulties presented by Turkey’s persistence in denying it ever happened.
MGM tried and failed to make a film about the genocide in the 1930s. Clark Gable was to have starred in an adaptation of The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Austrian novelist Franz Wurfel until the Turkish government threatened an international campaign against the film. And the Canadian independent Atom Egoyan, who is of Armenian descent, also found himself in a fight with “the denialist lobby” over his 2002 film Ararat. According to Variety, Miramax, Ararat’s distributors, were bombarded with so many negative responses that its website crashed.
Christian Bale (left) and Oscar Isaac star in the film that tackles the Armenian genocide, albeit from a distance. Photo: Open Road Films
With these precedents working against it, The Promise would not have been made if it hadn’t been for Kirk Kerkorian, a former head of MGM, whose family fled the Ottoman pogroms. Shortly before his death in 2015, Kerkorian put up the finance for the film, which was budgeted at $100 million, quite a chunk of money for an independent production.
George, who told the story of another genocide in Hotel Rwanda (2004), plots a careful course between romance and history, with romance coming out on top. It’s an international cast. The ever-adaptable Oscar Isaac, whose career has seen him play Mexican, French, Russian and Indonesian, is cast – quite credibly – as the Armenian hero Mikael Boghosian.
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French-Canadian Charlotte Le Bon is the Armenian girl he loves and Christian Bale supplies the American element that seems to be essential to any historical epic that comes out of the US, whether or not the Americans had a significant role to play. He’s a hard-drinking, hot-headed yet gallant American correspondent who insists on staying in Turkey to report on the massacre.
The action begins in 1915 with a glimpse of paradise. Mikael leaves his poor but happy village in southern Turkey to study medicine, having promised his new fiancee (Angela Sarafyan) he will be back in two years to marry her. Arriving in Constantinople, he finds a luminous fairytale city rich in possibilities.
His uncle, a prosperous Armenian merchant, welcomes him to his sunlit villa on the Bosphorus and five minutes later he’s already regretting his engagement because he’s fallen for Le Bon’s Ana Khesarian. Paris-educated, she’s working as tutor to his uncle’s children but she also has a lover – Bale’s Chris Myers. Wearing a moustache that is a performance in itself, he spots the couple’s growing attraction to one another and morosely takes another hit of whisky.
But Turkey’s entry into the war as Germany’s ally soon puts an end to paradise, scattering the cast in various directions. Chris and Ana escape to the south so that he can get another angle on the war, while Mikael is shipped off to a labour camp. Death from starvation and overwork is imminent when he’s saved by a series of niftily choreographed exploits of the “with one leap, Jack was free” variety.
Then he, too, heads south, speeding towards his inevitable reunion with Ana at such a rate you could be excused for imagining Turkey to be the size of Lord Howe Island, if it weren’t for the effort that George’s cameras put into evoking the country’s desert flatlands, pine forests and rocky hillsides.
It’s a handsome film and George manages to keep the genocide in focus with shots of the Turks herding long lines of refugees across the desert expanses. But the full horror is kept at one remove. Either it remains in the middle distance or we arrive for the aftermath – to be told rather than shown. And I can’t pretend to be sorry about that, given the savagery with which the killings were carried out. At the same time, the facts of it all have been shoehorned so tightly – and tritely – into an over-familiar narrative formula that you don’t feel a thing.