Category: 2019

Nine Sentenced in Dink Case

Torgomian Varazdat
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6 hours ago

The slain Agos editor, Hrant Dink

A Turkish court on Wednesday handed prison sentences to nine suspects in relation to the 2007 assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, reported the Istanbul-based Agos newspaper.

Dink’s assassination trial is ongoing, while the verdict for nine suspects was brought forward as they were subject to statute of limitations.

Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the Turkish parliament representing the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), took to Twitter to announce the sentencing and declare that Dink’s murder case is far from closed, until the real perpetrators are put behind bars.

Since Dink’s assassination, it has been speculated that Turkey’s infamous deep state or the Turkish government itself had a role in ordering the killing, because of the journalist’s outspoken position on advancing democracy domestically, as well as condemning the Armenian Genocide.

“Those convicted in Hrant Dink’s case are the perpetrators of the murder. As friends of Hrant we have been saying for 12 years, ‘Let those who ordered the killing be punished.’ But they are being defended for 12 years. Dink’s murder case will not close unless we want it,” Paylan said in a Twitter post.

Erhan Tuncel, a former informant and the suspected mastermind of the Dink murder, was sentenced to 99 years and six months in prison for taking part in Dink’s assassination, being a member of an armed group, and his part in a bomb blast at a restaurant in the Black Sea coastal province of Trabzon. Tuncel was arrested at court.

Another defendant, Yasin Hayal, who previously received a life sentence for his part in the assassination, was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison over forming and leading an armed group.

The court sentenced assassin Ogün Samast, a native of Trabzon who was 16-years-old at the time of the assassination, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for membership to an armed group. Samast is serving a 22 years and 10-month sentence for Dink’s murder.

Four other suspects were sentenced to less than two-years in prison for their role in the murder, while two defendants, including Hayal’s brother Osman Hayal, were acquitted.

Baghdassarian Family Announced as ANCA-WR Gala Sponsor

Antonian Lara
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6 hours ago

Peter (left) and Gevik Baghdassarian flank their late father Hacop during a past Armenia Fund Telethon

GLENDALE—The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region announced Gevik and Peter Baghdassarian as the sponsors of the 2019 ANCA-WR Annual Gala Banquet, in memory of their father, lifelong community leader and benefactor Hacop M. Baghdassarian. This year, the gala banquet will take place on Sunday, October 20 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

“Hacop Baghdassarian was a major pillar not only in our Southern California community, but his visionary leadership transcended Armenia, Artsakh, Javakhk and beyond. Our Board of Directors decided to pay special tribute to his memory in recognition of decades-long service to the advancement of the Armenian Cause,” remarked ANCA-WR Board Member Lina Davidian, Esq. “We’re grateful to the Baghdassarian Family for their generosity and, more importantly, for carrying forward Hacop Baghdassarian’s legacy of patriotism, philanthropy, and leadership.”

Baghdassarian’s decades-long and storied efforts in advancing Armenian education, culture and the just aspirations of the Armenian Nation both here in the United States and in Armenia, Artsakh and Javakhk made him an exemplary Armenian and a passionate humanitarian who, with humility and dedication, changed many lives due to his generosity.

In March 2017, Baghdassarian and his wife, Hilda, were honored and recognized for their service in the community by the Armenian Cultural Foundation and Baghdassarian was named ACF Man of the Year. In 2011, Baghdassarian was bestowed with the ANCA-WR Legacy Award at the organization’s annual gala.

Baghdassarian’s contributions to varied organizations earned him numerous accolades from the Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region, the Armenian Relief Society, the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Educational Foundation, through whose programs he rebuilt schools and cultural facilities in Armenia, Artsakh and Javakhk.

His contributions have enabled the Vahan and Anoush Chamlian school to be endowed with a state-of-the-art gymnasium, Armenia’s and Artsakh’s rural village to have top-notch schools and cultural centers and the ARS to advance its activities in Javakhk and the ANCA to advance its pursuit of the Armenian Cause.

In 2016, during a pontifical visit to Los Angeles, His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia bestowed the “Prince of Cilicia” medal to Hacop and Hilda Baghdassarian.

Baghdassarian was born in Tehran, Iran on March 30, 1948 to Petros and Marous Malek Baghdassarian. He grew up in Tehran with his four sisters – Nora, Emma, Rima and Asieh. He attended Kooshesh Armenian School in Tehran until the age of fifteen when his father Petros unexpectedly died from a heart attack. Baghdassarian cut short his educational aspirations to attend to his father’s paint supply business. He maintained his father’s reputation as a fair and honest entrepreneur and was sought out by young Armenians arriving in Tehran looking for work.

In 1973, Hacop married Hilda Voskanian and later had two sons, Peter and Gevik. In 1979, leaving behind the turmoil of the Iranian Revolution, Baghdassarian and his family immigrated to the United States. In Los Angeles, Baghdassarian followed his entrepreneurial inclination and opened the first of several restaurants patriotically named “Massis Kabob” in Glendale. For over four decades, Baghdassarian worked tirelessly to make his businesses successful–his motivations always being providing for his family as well as contributing to the Armenian community to the best of his ability.

Baghdassarian often traveled to the rural villages in Armenia to review plans for the renovation of dilapidated elementary schools. Baghdassarian has been responsible for the construction or renovation of several schools in rural Armenia, Artsakh and Javakhk. In 2005, Baghdassarian’s philanthropy and dedication were officially recognized when he received the Yerakhtagitutiun Award for his humanitarian services from then President of Artsakh Arkady Ghoukassian.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 07/18/2019

Manouk Vasilian 
Thursday, 
13 Arrested In Armenia After Violent Unrest
Հուլիս 18, 2019
        • Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Riot police lined up in a square in Ijevan, . Police in Armenia made 13 arrests early on Thursday after clashing overnight 
with residents of the northern Tavush province who protested against a 
government ban on logging in the area. Several hundred protesters blocked on Wednesday a highway passing through the 
provincial capital Ijevan to demand that the authorities stop preventing them 
from cutting and selling wood from nearby forests. They said logging is their 
sole source of income. Riot police used force after the protesters refused to unblock the highway 
leading to the main Armenian-Georgian border crossing. Police officers were pelted with stones and hit by sticks during the clashes. Eleven of them required hospitalization, according to a spokesman for the 
Armenian police. At least one injured civilian also received medical assistance 
in a local hospital. Traffic through the busy road resumed after police reinforcements were sent to 
Ijevan.The national police chief, Valeri Osipian, also rushed to the town close 
to the Georgian and Azerbaijani borders on Wednesday night. Osipian remained 
there as of Thursday afternoon. A spokeswoman for Armenia’s Investigative Committee, Naira Harutiunian, said 
dozens of people were taken for questioning following the violence. Thirteen of 
them were placed under arrest on suspicion of hooliganism and resistance to 
law-enforcement authorities, while six others signed written pledges not to 
leave their places of residence pending investigation, Harutiunian told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian service. One of Osipian’s deputies, Vartan Movsisian, said the police are now trying to 
track down and arrest other violent protesters. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian condemned the unrest in Ijevan, his hometown, as 
he chaired a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan. “Those responsible for 
yesterday’s events as well as the organizers of illegal logging must be 
strictly punished,” said Pashinian. “We will be halting illegal logging in the most resolute manner,” he added. Pashinian also posted on his Facebook page video of Osipian addressing and 
praising police officers lined up in an Ijevan square on Thursday morning. “We will not be lenient towards anyone,” said the police chief. “Everyone must 
receive a punishment for their deeds envisaged by the law.”
European Bodies Asked To Advise On Kocharian Case
        • Gayane Saribekian
France -- The building of the European Court of Human Rights is seen in 
Strasbourg, March 26, 2019. Armenia’s Constitutional Court on Thursday decided to ask the European Court of 
Human Rights (ECHR) and the Council Europe’s Venice Commission to give an 
“advisory opinion” on the legality of coup charges brought against former 
President Robert Kocharian. Kocharian was charged last year under Article 300.1of the Armenian Criminal 
Code dealing with violent seizure of power. The accusation stems from the 2008 
post-election street clashes in Yerevan which left ten people dead. In separate appeals, Kocharian and a district court judge in Yerevan asked the 
Constitutional Court earlier this year to determine whether the Criminal Code 
clause conforms to the Armenian constitution. The court recently agreed to hold 
hearings and rule on the appeals. But it is now seeking advice from the ECHR and the Venice Commission. In a 
short statement, the court said it will suspend the consideration of the 
appeals pending formal responses from the two Strasbourg-based bodies. The 
statement gave no further explanation of the decision. The decision was announced one day after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
launched a scathing attack on the Constitutional Court and its chairman, Hrayr 
Tovmasian, in particular. In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service, 
Pashinian accused Tovmasian of cutting political deals with former President 
Serzh Sarkisian to “privatize” the country’s highest court. “The Constitutional Court must get out of this status of a privatized booth,” 
he said, implicitly demanding changes in the court’s composition. He said he 
could initiate constitutional amendments for that purpose. Pashinian also signaled support for Vahe Grigorian, the court’s newest judge 
who has challenged the legitimacy of Tovmasian and six other members of the 
tribunal appointed before the Pashinian-led “Velvet Revolution” of April-May 
2018. Armenia -- Supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian block the entrance to 
the Constitutional Court building in Yerevan, May 20, 2019. Tovmasian, who served as a senior lawmaker representing Sarkisian’s Republican 
Party until becoming the court chairman in March 2018, refused to respond to 
Pashinian on Thursday. “I don’t comment on political statements, I comment on 
judicial acts,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenians service. Asked whether he is ruling out his resignation, Tovmasian said: “Can you rule 
out the possibility of an earthquake in Armenia tomorrow? Can you rule out that 
the world will collapse tomorrow?”
The Venice Commission discussed the dispute over the Armenian Constitutional 
Court at a session held in Strasbourg last month. An internal report on the 
session disclosed by Armenian opposition circles on Monday suggests that at 
least some members of the Council of Europe body defended the court’s 
legitimacy. The report describes as “disturbing” the fact that Grigorian’s 
claims were hailed by some pro-government members of the Armenian parliament. Grigorian said in the parliament on June 20 that only he and another judge of 
the 9-member court, Arman Dilanian, can make valid decisions. He argued that 
under constitutional amendments which took effect last year the court now 
consists of “judges,” rather than “members,” as was the case until April 2018. He said that the seven other members of the court therefore cannot be 
considered “judges.”
The eight other members of the Constitutional Courts, including Dilanian, 
dismissed Grigorian’s claims in a joint statement. Kocharian Trial Judge Tight-Lipped About Office Raid
        • Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- Judge Davit Grigorian orders former President Robert Kocharian's 
release from custody, Yerevan, May 18, 2019. A Yerevan judge presiding over the suspended trial of former President Robert 
Kocharian refused on Thursday to clarify why his office was searched and sealed 
by law-enforcement authorities earlier this week. Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Davit Grigorian only confirmed that 
officers of the Special Investigative Service (SIS) confiscated his computer 
during Tuesday’s raid. “I don’t want to talk about that now. I will express my position later on,” 
Grigorian said when asked about what he is accused or suspected of. Nor would he say if he sees a connection between the search and his handling of 
the high-profile trial. The SIS said on Wednesday that Grigorian’s office was searched as part of an 
ongoing criminal investigation conducted by it. A spokeswoman for the 
law-enforcement agency did not give any details of that probe or say whether 
the judge could be prosecuted. Grigorian ordered Kocharian freed from custody on May 18 five days after the 
latter went on trial on charges mostly stemming from the 2008 post-election 
violence in Yerevan. The judge also decided to suspend the trial, questioning 
the legality of the coup charges and asked the Constitutional Court to pass 
judgment on them. The decisions angered political allies and supporters of Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian.Heeding Pashinian’s calls, hundreds of them blocked the entrances to 
court buildings across Armenia’s on May 20. Pashinian demanded a mandatory 
“vetting” of all Armenian judges, saying that many of them remain linked to the 
country’s “corrupt” former leadership. Kocharian was arrested again on June 25 hours after Armenia’s Court of Appeals 
overturned Grigorian’s decisions. His trial has still not resumed, however, 
because the Court of Appeals has yet to send materials of the case back to the 
lower court. Earlier this month, Kocharian’s lawyers accused the Court of Appeals of 
deliberately dragging out the judicial process to make sure the ex-president 
remains under arrest as long as possible. They said Grigorian might again free 
the ex-president accused of usurping power in the final weeks of his 1998-2008 
rule. It also emerged this week that in March a Yerevan resident asked the SIS to 
launch criminal proceedings against Grigorian. The citizen’s lawyer, Garik 
Malkhasian, refused on Thursday to specify his client’s allegations against the 
judge. He also could not say whether the search conducted in Grigorian’s office 
is connected with them. Press Review
“Haykakan Zhamanak” comments on late-night clashes in Ijevan between riot 
police and local residents protesting against a government ban on logging in 
nearby forests. The paper says that the Armenian authorities are right to crack 
down on a long-running deforestation of the area. “This is a very profitable 
business and profits generated by it have long fuelled entrenched local clans,” 
it says. “They felt safe in the past. But after the revolution the situation 
changed and the new authorities moved to stop industrial logging. In recent 
days, the noose [around those businesses] tightened and the problem became more 
acute.” The paper says the same clans organized Wednesday’s protests and 
ensuing clashes with security forces. “Zhamanak” praises Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s comments made in an 
interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Wednesday, saying that they reflect 
the public mood in the country. “There is no doubt that today’s judicial system 
and the Constitutional Court are incompatible with the New Armenia,” writes the 
paper. It says Pashinian voiced support for Vahe Grigorian, a Constitutional 
Court judge who has effectively declared seven other members of the court 
illegitimate. “At the same time, it is obvious that even the prime minister does not yet have 
solutions, especially after reservations and critical comments voiced from 
Venice [Commission,]” the paper goes on. “In the coming months the solutions 
will definitely be found and we will have a Constitutional Court and judicial 
system corresponding to today’s Armenia. But Nikol Pashinian’s team will not be 
able to win back the lost time, the year wasted by it.”
“Zhoghovurd” says government bodies should have issued more detailed warnings 
about the contamination of Lake Sevan reported a few weeks ago. The paper says 
officials should have indicated concrete areas where swimming is considered 
hazardous, instead of effectively urging swimmers to stay away from the entire 
lake. It also calls for a “direct dialogue” between the government and private 
entrepreneurs operating resorts located along the Sevan coastline. (Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org

Salpy Eskidjian Weiderud Honored With International Religious Freedom Award

Emil Lazarian
Oikoumene.

Peace dialogue facilitator Salpy Eskidjian Weiderud. Photo: Claus Grue/WCC

Salpy Eskidjian Weiderud, leader of the Religious Track of the Cyprus Peace Process, has received an International Religious Freedom Award from the US Department of State. The awards “honor extraordinary advocates of religious freedom from around the world” and will be presented on 17 July in Washington, D.C.

Weiderud was born in Cyprus, a grandchild of Armenian refugees. She is an architect and facilitator of the unprecedented peacebuilding initiative in Cyprus known as the Religious Track of the Cyprus Peace Process, which operates under the auspices of the Embassy of Sweden.

Weiderud has focused her career on facilitating peace with passion, said World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit. “Salpy has used her special talents and energy for peacemaking in many settings, some of them in the service of the WCC,” he said. “We are grateful for her many contributions, and this award for the work in Cyprus is well-deserved.”

Beginning as a student in the 1980s, Weiderud worked on a variety of bicommunal civil society and women’s peace initiatives in Cyprus.  She was the first young female program executive working on religious freedom, human rights, and peace issues at the Middle East Council of Churches.

During her time at the WCC – between 1995 and 2005 – Weiderud served as executive secretary for International Affairs, programme executive for the Middle East, and special consultant on Palestine and Israel.

She founded the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, was a founding member of the International Action Network on Small Arms and Light Weapons, and initiated and led the Ecumenical Action Network Against Small Arms. As the executive coordinator of the Programme to Overcome Violence of the WCC, she led its Peace to the City Campaign (1997-1998) and initiated the WCC’s Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace (2000-2010).

Weiderud has served as the executive director of the Office of the Religious Track of the Cyprus Peace Process since 2012.  Originally a quiet initiative that started in 2009, the religious track is now an active peacebuilding effort based on four pillars: to get to know and build trust among the religious leaders and respective faith communities; to promote confidence-building measures; to advocate for the right to free access and worship at churches, mosques and monasteries; and to ensure the protection of all religious monuments in Cyprus.

 
 
 
 

Armenian deputy prime minister speaks of need to open Armenian-Turkish border

Emil Lazarian
Interfax – Russia & CIS Military Newswire
Wednesday 7:20 PM MSK
Armenian deputy prime minister speaks of need to open Armenian-Turkish border
 
 YEREVAN. July 17
 
Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Avinyan at a meeting with UN Under-Secretary-General Fekitomoeloa Katoa Utoikamanu spoke of the need to open the Armenian-Turkish border, the press service of the Armenian government announced on Wednesday.
 
At the meeting in New York, Avinyan invited the UN official to take practical steps to settle the issue of the closed border with Turkey, the report says.
 
Utoikamanu said she would study the issue, the press service said.
 
Avinyan also expressed concern about the construction of water reservoirs by Turkey using the water resources of the Aras border river. He said that in addition to having a negative impact on lands irrigated from the basin of the Aras this undermines to water and biological balance of the region.
 
In October 2009, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey in Zurich signed a protocol on the establishment of diplomatic relations and a protocol on the development of bilateral relations that were not ratified by the parliaments of the two countries.
 
On February 16, 2015 the then Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan informed parliament to revoke the Armenian-Turkish protocols from the legislative body.
 
Diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia were severed in 1993 at the initiative of Ankara over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The border between the two countries is closed.
 
In November 2018, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that Yerevan is ready for the settlement of relations with Ankara “without preliminary conditions.”
 
He spoke negatively of Turkey’s decision to close the border over the Karabakh conflict.
 
“This is a bad policy. If someone hopes that we can be threatened to accept some option of the conflict settlement, he is mistaken. We are ready for a negotiating process but I rule out the possibility that we will take any step under pressure, threats or the imposition of a blockade. On the contrary, we will only strengthen and consolidate and achieve the desired result,” Pashinyan said.
 
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Sports: Mkhitaryan thanks Los Angeles fans for warm welcome at the first pre-season match

Emma Jilavian
Panorama, Armenia
Politics 14:49 18/07/2019 World

Asenal’s pre-season continued with an encouraging 2-1 victory over German champions Bayern Munich in Los Angeles. A late Eddie Nketiah goal sealed the win for Arsenal, who welcomed their first-team stars back into the side for the first time since their Europa League final. The match featured also the captain of Armenian national team and Arsenal playmaker Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

“Great to be back on the pitch in this first test game with Bayern Munich., Thank you LA for the warm welcome,” Mkhitaryan wrote on Facebook following the match. 

Sports: Canoeists preparing for World Championship

Arbi Tashjian
Panorama, Armenia
Sport 10:38 18/07/2019 Armenia

The Armenian canoe team will take part in the Canoe Sprint World Championship in Hungarian Szeged from August 21 to 25.

Executive Secretary of the Canoe Federation of Armenia Vardan Adamyan has announced the team’s line up to the ANOC press service.

“Before the World Championship on August 4 Ara Virabyan (canoe) will join a training camp in Hungarian Szeged at the invitation of the International Federation. The training camp is conducted in the framework of the sport development. Hayk Tadevosyan, Vladimir Alaverdyan, Edgar Tutyan and Artur Akishi will take part in the Canoe Sprint World Championship. They will perform in the K4 and K2 competitions. Vladimir Alaverdyan and Edgar Tutyan will participate in the K2 1000 m event which is qualifying for Tokyo 2020. Ara Virabyan will compete in the C1 500m and 1000m events. The team will leave for Hungary led by head coach Martiros Shahvaladyan. And from August 25 to September 2 the World Rowing Championships will be held in Linz, Austria where Armenia will be represented by Paylak Mirzoyan and Mher Janikyan. The team will travel to Austria led by me,” Vardan Adamyan said.

Sports: Armenian Greco-Roman wrestlers to participate in international tournaments

Lilit Nahapetian
Panorama, Armenia

Armenian Greco-Roman wrestlers will participate in international tournaments in Poland and Georgia, the WFA press service informs.

From July 22 to August 1 our team will have a training camp in Olympavan after which a part of the team will leave for Warsaw, the other part – to Tbilisi.

Gevorg Gharibyan, Armen Melikyan (60 kg), Slavik Galstyan (63 kg), Malkhas Amoyan (72 kg), Arsen Julfalakyan (75 kg), Artur Shahinyan and Maksim Manukyan (87 kg) will join an international tournament in Warsaw from August 2 to 4.

Rudik Mkrtchyan, Norayr Hakhoyan (55 kg), Vazgen Khachatryan (60 kg), Hrant Kalachyan, probably Armen Baghdasaryan (72 kg), Sargis Kocharyan, Eduard Sargsyan, Argishti Abgaryan (82 kg), Gegham Torgomyan (87 kg) and David Ovasapyan (130 kg) will participate in a tournament in Tbilisi from August 7-11.

Azerbaijani press: Whom US congressmen serve?

Christine Harutyunian
14:23 (UTC+04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

Trend:

The adoption of an amendment by the US House of Representatives to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) proposed by Congresswoman Judy Chu, which is supposedly aimed at reducing tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh, is essentially aimed at undermining Azerbaijan’s ability to ensure the Resolute Support Mission that the US and NATO are implementing in Afghanistan.

By participating in this mission since 2001, Baku agrees and ensures the security of cargo transported by the US across the territory of Azerbaijan, including the airspace, taking into account respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each other and the cooperation of states.

The support of an initiative by US congressmen Ed Royce and Eliot Engel by both parties in the US Congress for a legislative amendment proposed by California-elected Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman prohibiting the provision of defense products made in the US to Azerbaijan, contradicts the statements by Representative of the US Administration John Bolton made during his visit in Baku.

The recommendations regarding air flights in the generally recognized airspace of Azerbaijan and the use of the airport in Khojaly town in Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by Armenia is illegal in general and against the interests of Washington.

The US Congressmen, short-sighted and blinded by the lies of the Armenian lobby, are trying to create legal chaos in the airspace of Azerbaijan, violate the principles of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, act contrary to the realities of the existing close cooperation of Azerbaijan and the US.

However, it is time to understand that Nagorno-Karabakh is the territory of Azerbaijan and the fact that for many years the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has been prohibiting civil aviation flights to the region due to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The congressmen who voted for the amendment may not be interested in the functioning of the normal air defense system of Azerbaijan, however, the protection of the safety of the US soldiers in the airspace of Azerbaijan is their direct duty. Trying to please aggressor Armenia, these congressmen first of all harm the interests of the US not only in the region, but also threaten Washington’s foreign policy – NATO peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

It is unlikely that the amendment will help create favorable atmosphere for holding effective negotiations on the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, it is aimed at encouraging occupier Armenia, creating atmosphere in which Armenian terrorists can feel comfortable.

The history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict knows many facts when Armenian terrorists shot down Azerbaijani civilian planes and helicopters. Trying to interfere and by violating the rights of sovereign Azerbaijan, which so far has been providing and continues to provide a safe air corridor for the US and NATO forces, the congressmen shouldn’t encourage the creation of an uncontrolled zone in the occupied territories of Nagorno-Karabakh, from where Armenian terrorists may launch missiles on vehicles, including those of the US.

Here the case is to ensure that the members of the Resolute Support mission, being implemented by NATO in Afghanistan and where Azerbaijan participates, can transport cargo through Azerbaijani territory as part of this mission. So far, Azerbaijan has contributed to the NATO mission in Afghanistan, as well as to promoting peace and security in the region as a whole, guided namely by this approach.

It is known that due to the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, during the NATO summit on May 25, 2017, it was decided to increase the number of troops deployed in this country from 12,000 to 15,000 people, which indicates the increased interest of the NATO Resolute Support Mission.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking April 4 this year at a press conference in Washington, said that Azerbaijan is a close partner of NATO and works closely with the organization in establishing international peace and security. The secretary general noted the significant contribution of Azerbaijan in the provision of armed forces and multimodal transit for the NATO Resolute Support Mission. The secretary general represents the collective position of the NATO countries, and this statement by the secretary general was made namely taking into account the safety of the corridors provided by Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan’s partnership with the US worries and annoys many, but Baku prefers a multi-vector, balanced policy. It seems that some congressmen, taking the side of Armenia, hiding behind humanism and making decisions in favor of Armenia’s occupying army in Nagorno-Karabakh, are pushing Baku to reconsider its foreign policy. These same people have done everything that led to a crisis in US relations with Turkey, and now they are working to split the cooperation of Azerbaijan with NATO, but they haven’t succeeded so far.

Elkhan Alasgarov, PhD, Head of Baku Network (http://bakunetwork.com)

Join us on Twitter and Facebook https://twitter.com/BakuNetwork, https://www.facebook.com/BakuNetwork

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp5ic7mhc6rZF6w0TQWqtmg


Book Review: The Genocide of Anatolia’s Christians

Tatoyan Vazgen
Jerusalem Post
 
 
 
BOOK REVIEW: THE GENOCIDE OF ANATOLIA’S CHRISTIANS
 
New book goes beyond Turkey’s mass murder of Armenians to address its treatment of Greeks and Assyrians
 
BY BENJAMIN WEINTHAL  JULY 17, 2019
 
An Armenian woman kneeling beside a dead child in a field “within sight of help and safety at Aleppo.”. (photo credit: WIKIMEDIA)
 
 
 
Israeli historians Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi have produced a work that shocks the conscience with their forensic study of the exterminatory violence committed during the final stage of the Ottoman Empire and the lead-up to the nascent phase of the Turkish Republic.
 
In contrast to scholarship that has largely focused on the World War I Ottoman extermination of Anatolia’s Armenian population, The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey’s Destruction of its Christian Minorities, 1894–1924 broadens that time frame to study other persecuted Christian minority groups, particularly Greeks and Assyrians.
 
An important lesson from this masterful history concerns the role that Islamic-animated genocide played in the destruction of the region’s Christians. Morris and Ze’evi marshal no shortage of evidence.
 
Take the example of one sheik who, according to the British diplomat in Turkey Gerald Fitzmaurice, “ordered his followers to bring as many stalwart young Armenians as they could find. To the number of about 100 they were thrown on their backs and held down by their hands and feet, while the sheik, with a combination of fanaticism and cruelty proceeded, while reciting verses of the Koran, to cut their throats after the Mecca rite of sacrificing sheep.” This massacre unfolded during a savage period of widespread targeting of Armenians that extended from 1894 to 1896.
 
The book abounds with examples of Islamic ideology being combined with state directives to promote the extermination of Middle Eastern Christians. It is not a historical study for the faint of heart.
 
The authors conclude that what happened was deliberate, state-engineered genocide aided by Muslim clerics and the Muslim-majority population. They base their conclusion on “the massive documentation – American, British, French, German and Austro-Hungarian – that we have studied over the past decade.”
 
The Ottoman and Turkish Republic’s policy of elimination reduced Asia Minor’s Christian communities from 20% of the population at the end of the nineteenth century to 2% in 1924.
 
 Morris and Ze’evi write, “The Turks and their helpers murdered, straightforwardly or indirectly, through privation and disease, between 1.5 and 2.5 million Christians between 1894 and 1924.”
 
The rise of the Young Turks and the Ottomans’ entry into WWI revealed a kind of grotesque historical irony. According to a contemporary witness, Wilfred Post, a doctor and missionary who was born and reared in Turkey, “The proclamation of the holy war, which failed to unite all Islam against the Entente, nevertheless had the effect of arousing the old fanatic spirit of the Turks themselves and they prosecuted the holy war within their own Empire with a zeal exceeding that of their forefathers.”
 
The German diplomat and archeologist Max von Oppenheim produced the 1914 “Memorandum on the fomenting of rebellions among the Muslim subjects of our enemies” that was sent to Sultan Mehmed V for approval. In short, Oppenheim and Kaiser Wilhelm II convinced the Ottomans to urge Muslims worldwide to revolt against their colonial masters based on jihadi ideology.
Oppenheim’s jihad failed while the Ottoman’s internal jihad against Christians succeeded at the cost of spectacular violence and suffering for Christian minorities.
 
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Turkish nationalist leader Mustafa Kemal (later Kemal Ataturk) did nothing to diminish the role of “jihadi rhetoric” as an organizing tool.
 
Kemal, the military hero associated with the Gallipoli campaign and who later become Turkey’s president, declared there was a “national holy war now commencing to save our sacred race and fatherland from the danger of dismemberment.”
 
Kemal made that statement after resigning from the army, saying he had then become a “crusader [mudjahid] fighting for the glory of the race.”
 
This type of rhetoric and ideology would not bode well for Turkey’s struggling Christian communities between 1918 and 1924.
 
Benjamin Weinthal is a fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.