Category: News

The Russian Ministry of Defense has released video footage showing its nighttime cruise missile strikes from the Caspian Sea against Islamic State targets in Syria, Sputnik News reports.

In a letter addressed the Canadian Foreign Minister Robert Nicholson, Dr. Girair Basmadjian, President of the Armenian National Committee of Canada, has called attention to the recent aggression by Azerbaijan at the Armenian border and the line of contact with Karabakh, Horizon Weekly reports.

The letter reads:

Dear Minister:

 I am writing to you on behalf of the Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC) in regards to the recent escalation of tensions perpetrated by the Republic of Azerbaijan along its borders with the Republic of Armenia and the Nagorn-Karabakh Republic (NKR).

In late September, the Azerbaijani army shelled civilian targets in Armenian villages in the border region of Tavush in the north-east of Armenia.  These unprovoked attacks killed three civilian women, two of whom were elderly.  Azerbaijan also fired in the direction of the town of Noyemberyan in the same region for the first time in ten years.  These artillery attacks led to shelling on both sides of the border which in turn resulted in the deaths of several Armenian service members.  All of this activity was in violation of a ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan and contrary to all norms of international law.

These attacks were timed to coincide with meetings of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers and international negotiators from the OSCE Minsk Group.  The attacks are an attempt by the Azerbaijani government to improve its bargaining position by involving Armenia in the ongoing conflict between Azerbaijan and the people of NKR.  Armenian civilians and military personnel are paying with their lives to prop up the corrupt and dictatorial Aliyev regime and Armenian border villages are under constant threat so that Azerbaijan gains concessions in what is meant to be a peaceful bargaining process.

Following these attacks, the OSCE Minsk Group proposed various measures to monitor ceasefire violations and to reduce tensions along the contact lines between Armenia and Azerbaijan and NKR and Azerbaijan.  All measures were rejected by Azerbaijan.

Canada’s government cannot sit silently while this conflict escalates. Prime Minister Harper has said in other instances that Canada cannot afford to sit by the sidelines while there are civilians being killed by a brutal dictatorship which does not seek peace.  Yet Canada has not raised its peaceful voice in this case. Many of Canada’s allies have already delivered forceful responses to these attacks.  The ANCC calls upon Canada to reiterate its support for the OSCE Minsk Group peace process and to condemn these attacks by Azerbaijan.

 

 

 

The recent escalation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border has revealed new problems on the Armenian media field, information security expert Samvel Martirosyan told a press conference today. This reminds him of a situation leading to the 2013 elections, when a huge number of websites with no owner and no journalists started disseminating misinformation and black PR, but disappeared after the elections.

According to the expert, the main objective is to attract visitors to the website to boost traffic.

“They started by posting ‘innocent’ materials, but started disseminating absurd information, when tensions increased. Those are mostly articles and videos raising panic,” Samvel Martirosyan said.

“Perhaps, the situation forces to implement censorship, which is a negative phenomenon and will work for the benefit of the society for two weeks only. Moreover, officials may use it to bloc anti-corruption materials,” he added.

The expert suggests applying ‘self-regulatory techniques’ to solve the problem. He also recommends to ignore websites, where every second article starts with the word “Urgent.”

Martirosyan warned that Azerbaijanis are creating fake Armenian websites to spread false information.

“More and more Azerbaijanis are ‘migrating’ to Armenian websites, aware that they will not find the truth in their media outlets,” the expert noted.

He concluded that any information published by media leaves a great psychological impact on the society. Therefore, before posting any news, it’s necessary to check the sources.

The Zaman daily’s Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanli, a journalist who has been at the helm of Turkey’s best-selling daily for 14 years, has resigned from his post over “unlawful pressure” on him and the media in general, Today’s Zaman reports.  

Dumanlı released a statement on Monday to announce that he sees he cannot perform his job as the editor-in-chief of the Zaman daily due to recent pressure on him and the media.

“I think I have been unable to sufficiently and efficiently contribute to the Zaman daily, where I have been serving since 2001, and that my health does not allow this either. For this reason, I resign from the post of editor-in-chief, which I have sincerely tried to maintain as much as I could,” Dumanlı said.

Police raided the Zaman office on Dec. 14, 2014 and detained Dumanli and several other journalists, including STV network executive Hidayet Karaca, scriptwriters and producers, as part of a government-initiated media crackdown.

The charges against Dumanli were based on one news report and two columns about an al-Qaeda-linked Turkish group, which he says he has never heard of. The columns were written by two other columnists, one of whom is critical of Zaman and quit writing for the paper last year.

“This year, the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, has brought an unprecedented level of awareness of the slaughter and deportation of the Armenians, and of my grandfather’s humanitarian efforts to stop the killings,” Robert M. Morgenthau, grandson of U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau said at on Capitol Hill hosted by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF) and the  in honor of visiting Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. Robert M. Morgenthau’s full speech is provided below:

“President Sargsyan, Members of Congress, Reverend Clergy, Foundation Board Members, and Friends

I am honored in more ways than I can recount to be asked to accept the Wallenberg Medal on behalf of my grandfather.  The legacy of Raoul Wallenberg holds a very personal significance for my family.  My father, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., was Secretary of the Treasury during the Holocaust.  At a time when as many as 12,000 Hungarian Jews were being deported to certain death every day, he established the War Refugee Board to resettle the refugees and save their lives.  It was Raoul Wallenberg who ultimately would run the Board, and it was his courage and tireless effort that saved 200,000 lives – and provided a model for the kind of humanitarian sacrifice that the world so needs today.

I am honored as well to be in the presence of President Serge Sargsyan.  I can assure you that my grandfather would be especially pleased to know that one day his grandson would share the podium with the President of an independent and free Armenia.

This year, the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, has brought an unprecedented level of awareness of the slaughter and deportation of the Armenians, and of my grandfather’s humanitarian efforts to stop the killings.  What is less well known, but what consumed my grandfather equally, is the sad history of the betrayal of the Armenian people in the quest for self-determination.

Throughout their history, the Armenians showed great courage in resisting dominance by invading armies. The rebellion in Zeitun, the defense of Van, and of course the historic resistance of the Armenians of Musa Dagh, each displayed the determination of a proud people, indomitable in spirit, and unwilling to surrender their faith or their identity.  Yet each time, Ottoman leaders responded with overwhelming force, force that escalated to all-out genocide.

In response, President Woodrow Wilson firmly committed the policy of the United States to the establishment of an Armenian homeland.  This flowed from his Fourteen Points, one of which was the principle of the self-determination of the peoples in the former Ottoman Empire.  The President appointed a commission, the King-Crane Commission, to set forth specific proposals to manifest this basic principle.

In August of 1919, the Commission concluded that the Armenians should inhabit a homeland that restored losses from the atrocities suffered periodically at the hands of the Ottoman Turks from 1894 through 1916. The homeland would comprise the Armenian highlands in Turkey and Russia, with an outlet on the Black Sea.

In August of 1920, Western powers and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Sevres.  It too affirmed the principle of an Armenian homeland, although a homeland reduced in size from what Woodrow Wilson had envisioned.

But the ink had hardly dried on the treaty when the new Turkish state attacked the Democratic Republic of Armenia and occupied parts of its territory.  Soon, the Soviet Union absorbed the remaining portion.  This land grab, so soon after the Genocide of the Armenians, presented a challenge to the conscience of the world, particularly when a German periodical published the comment of the notorious Enver Pasha:  “What do you think…Did we slaughter them just for fun?”

The response of the world community to this crisis was nothing short of shameful:  the League of Nations capitulated.  Soon there was a new treaty, the Treaty of Lausanne, which made no mention of an Armenian homeland.

This explains why, for eighty years, Armenians suffered under Soviet oppression.  It is why, for eighty years, the Armenian people, who prided themselves on being the world’s first Christian nation, were ruled by an atheist dictatorship.

Today, of course, the Soviet Union is no more, and Armenia is an independent republic.  And yet, as Armenians and their supporters all around the world marched this year for Genocide recognition, they did so under a two-fold phrase:  “I remember…and I demand.”

I leave it to others to untangle the fiercely complicated question of how to make right the injustices of history.  But let us begin by squarely confronting that history.

During the Genocide, my Grandfather witnessed first-hand what happens when the world’s conscience gives way to caution.  He was personally devastated by what he famously termed a campaign of race extermination.  And in the aftermath of that tragedy, even after he returned to the United States, even as he devoted himself to the resettlement of Armenian refugees, his greatest lingering disappointment was that he did not live to see the reestablishment of an independent Armenia.

I have said on other occasions that the principles that have largely animated my own life in public office are those that my grandfather brought back from his service in Anatolia.  I commend them to one and all.  Among those values are all of the freedoms that would later be included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  But there is yet one more value that he taught us, one that gives life to all the rest:  a commitment that, on issues of justice, we shall never give up.

On behalf of my grandfather, I thank you for this great honor.

On October 1-4, under the auspices of the Embassy of Armenia to Canada, the 6th Armenian Festival took place in the Canadian city of Moncton, New Brunswick. The sixth edition of the festival was dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

The Festival commenced with the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, during which the Armenian Ambassador  to Canada, Armen Yeganian, and the Mayor of Moncton George LeBlanc unveiled a monument dedicated to the memory of the victims of Armenian Genocide and planted a commemorative tree.

The rich programme of the Festival included Armenian music and dance, performance by “Zulal” a cappella trio, “Garni” Dance Ensemble of Montreal, composer Grigor Arakelyan from Armenia, soprano Aline Kutan and many others, as well as an exhibit of paintings by Armenian artist Garen Petrossyan and film shows.

During the days of the Festival, an international conference entitled “The Armenian Genocide and crimes against humanity” took place at the University of Moncton.

Facebook is planning to launch a satellite to provide internet access to remote parts of Africa, the social network’s founder Mark Zuckerberg has said, the Daily Mail reports.

Working with French firm Eutelsat, the Amos-6 satellite will provide large parts of East, West and South Africa with web access from the second half of 2016.

The satellite is the latest step in connecting the world to the web through Facebook’s Internet.org free mobile data scheme – but it has been slammed by online right’s groups.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the satellite was under construction and would be ready for launch into space in 2016 as part of the company’s Internet.org scheme. In a post on his personal page he said: ‘ We’re going to keep working to connect the world – even if that means looking beyond our planet’

In a post on his personal Facebook page Mr Zuckerberg said: ‘Connectivity changes lives and communities.

‘We’re going to keep working to connect the entire world – even if that means looking beyond our planet.’

Internet.org launched in August 2013. It is led by Facebook but is a collaboration between companies such as  Nokia and Samsung, telecom giant Ericsson, and chip designer Qualcomm.

The project was set up to connect two thirds of people globally who are offline and, in five to 10 years it hopes to reduce the cost of providing mobile internet by 99 per cent.

 

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has stated that the constitutional reform “is a big mistake which will entail extremely dangerous ramifications for the future of Armenia,” reports. 

“My point of view hasn’t changed: there is no need for constitutional reforms, especially such radical ones. All the challenges and problems that the country faces  are quite solvable under the current Constitution which functionality is not questioned by anyone. The published draft has exceeded my worst expectations. The document doesn’t already stipulate the choice between semi-presidential and parliamentary systems of governance: the draft Constitution contains considerable risks of shifting to a de-facto single- party system which will lead to political monopoly and stagnation. The Soviet Constitution had a beautiful wording, but Article 6 on the ruling role of the CPSU legalized the communists’ political monopoly. Everyone knows what consequently became of the USSR. The draft Constitution is saturated with beautiful phrases on human rights and social goals of the state which, however, serve to disguise an absolutely unacceptable way of National Assembly formation emasculating the very gist of the parliamentary governance.

The draft’s Article 89 is called for ensuring dominance in the parliament and accordingly, in the power, a single party, as well. In our realities, this will be the party possessing the administrative and financial resources irrespective of its popularity.

Taking into account the absolute lack of even an implication of inner-party democracy in Armenia, the patronage governance will become a source of evil for many years to come, a source of stagnation and tool for the reproduction of the vicious system.

In fact, the proposed draft turns the political monopoly into a constitutional norm.

I don’t wish such a future for my country, which is why I am definitely against the reforms. A big mistake is made which may entail extremely dangerous ramifications for the future of Armenia”, stated Robert Kocharyan.

Iran’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Morteza Sarmadi and Armenia’s Ambassador to Iran Artashes Tumanyan explored avenues for reinforcing Tehran-Yerevan cooperation, particularly after the recent nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, Tasnim News Agency reports.

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics has been won by Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald, for discovering how neutrinos switch between different “flavours,” the BBC reports.

Neutrinos are ubiquitous subatomic particles with almost no mass and which rarely interact with anything else, making them very difficult to study.

Kajita and McDonald made important measurements of their properties using huge instruments in Japan and Canada.

They were named at a press conference in Sweden.

Goran Hansson, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which decides on the award, declared: “This year’s prize is about changes of identity among some of the most abundant inhabitants of the universe.”