Category: News

The Syrian government and rebel forces have begun an operation to move people away from four besieged towns, activists say, the BBC reports.

People from Foah and Kefraya, two government-held towns in the north-west, have arrived in Rashideen, west of Aleppo, AFP news agency reports.

Similar operations have begun in rebel-held Madaya and Zabadani, near Damascus.

More than 30,000 people are expected to be evacuated under the deal.

Some 4.7 million people live in hard-to-reach and besieged areas in Syria, including 644,000 in UN-declared besieged locations.

 

 

 

The special session of Akhalkalak’s Regional Assembly will not take place because of lack of quorum.  The Assembly was to discuss a statement on recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Lawmaker had drafted a statement on recognition of the Armenian Genocide, which was to be discussed ahead of April 24, but three of the 13 signatories withdrew their signatures at the last moment, Chairman of Akhalkalak Regional Assembly Hamlet Movsisyan told Public Radio of Armenia.

Norik Karapetyan, member of the Council of Armenian NGOs of Samtskhe Javakhk and Kvemo Kartli, which had initiated the statement, says “the MPs called off the signatures under pressure.” “Other MPs say it’s not the right time… but we want the country we live in to acknowledge the past of genocide,” he said.

According to Hamlet Movsisyan, the lawmakers withdrew their signatories, saying they were not familiar with the text of the statement when signing.

Movsisyan was the first to raise the issue of Armenian Genocide at the Georgian Parliament, calling to pay tribute to the memory of the victims with a minute of silence.

Grigor Tsormutyan, one of the MPs that withdrew the signature, said “it’s not the right time” and assured there had been no pressures. “The statement would not help anyway. On the contrary, Georgia is not yet ready for that, while we are still too dependent,” he said.

Had the Regional Assembly of Akhalkalak, they would later be able to address the Georgian President and the Parliament.

Russian broadcaster Channel One will not broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest next month because the country’s competitor has been barred from host country Ukraine.

Russia’s decision removes any chance of it competing this year, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said.

Ukraine is refusing to allow Julia Samoilova to perform at Eurovision because she has visited Crimea in 2014.

The EBU has condemned the ban.

It says Ukraine is undermining the non-political nature of the contest.

The union, which produces Eurovision, said it had offered two possible solutions to Channel One. The proposals were for Ms Samoilova to perform via satellite from Russia or for another contestant to be allowed to travel to Ukraine to take her place.

Both were rejected and the broadcaster has now announced it will not televise the event.

“Unfortunately this means Russia will no longer be able to take part in this year’s competition,” the EBU said. “We very much wanted all 43 countries to be able to participate and did all we could to achieve this.”

Yuri Khachaturov has been appointed Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, RIA Novosti reports.

Khachaturov will take office from May 2, 2017, acting Secretary General Valery Semerikov told reporters today.

He said the decision was unanimously taken at the CSTO informal summit in Bishkek.

PHOTO: ERIC CHARBONNEAU/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

 

‘The Promise’ Star James Cromwell says the Armenian Genocide may get recognition under Trump, reports.

Attending the Los Angeles prmiere of the Armenian Genocide epic The Promise, James  Cromwell said “Hollywood has been hesitant to tackle the politically fraught subject for more than 100 years.”

“There was an extraordinary man, Kirk Kerkorian, who knew this industry and who knew that a film about the Armenian Genocide would never be made,” he said. “Finally at the end of his life, he said, ‘I will pony up $100 million, we will make this film.’ And even with Terry George as director, $100 million, and a script, they still could not sell this picture to Hollywood. Mike Medavoy stepped up, but for the rest of Hollywood, ‘no,’ because they didn’t want to be associated with something they thought was going to go in the toilet or cause a lot of ire with any other project they had that might go Turkey, might be denied the Turkish market,” he said.

The veteran actor also said the United States’ refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide reflects a systematic problem.

“For whatever reason, this community flinched. This country flinches in its responsibility for the devastation of Syria and Yemen and Libya and Iraq and Afghanistan and Somalia and the Sudan and everywhere,” he added. “If we do not acknowledge our responsibility for events like this, our history, then we are doomed to repeat them, which is what we’re doing.”

President Barack Obama reneged on his 2008 campaign pledge that said, “As President, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”

System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, “The Promise’s” executive music consultant, who has long advocated for genocide recognition, said Obama’s broken promise was “extremely disappointing.”

“It was very disappointing that he would cow to political capital like that having to do with Turkey’s pressure being a NATO ally,” he said. “As we can see, [Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan is a madman and Turkey needs the U.S. more than the U.S. needs Turkey.”

Cromwell said there’s a higher chance of recognition under President Donald Trump “because he’s insane.”

“We have elected an insane man as president of the United States and he has appointed people who are, in my mind, spiritually dead to run the country, so now the American people can look at their government and say it does not work,” he said. “We must take it back. It’s called we the people, it’s not called we the 1%. It’s not we industrialists. It’s we the people.”

According to Cromwell, Americans will be moved to take to the streets to demand justice and picket the Turkish embassy until the genocide is recognized and restitutions are paid.

“The Promise” has already been forced to surmount several obstacles. When the film world-premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last September, its IMDb page received a flood of negative ratings.

“When we were at the Toronto International Film Festival at its original premiere, this is the L.A. premiere, but that was the first time it was seen and only a theater full of people saw it,” Tankian said. “We had tens of thousands of 0 votes stemming from Turkey on IMDb so there was a campaign to try to discredit the film. I thought ‘that’s really ridiculous.’ This is a film — it’s media, it’s cultural. To use it as a political weapon in that sense is unfair. But that’s good, that means the denialists are afraid and we want them to be afraid.”

“The Promise” centers on a love triangle between an Armenian medical student (Isaac), a renowned American journalist (Bale), and an Armenian woman (Charlotte Le Bon).

Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, who wrote a song for the film, said being swept away by the drama will help audiences grasp the powerful message.

“I went to school in the U.S. and I wasn’t taught about the Armenian or Greek genocide in history class,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s due in part to the denial of it or what it is. It’s one of those things where it’s a story that needs to be told. And I think it needs to be told and retold. … We need to at some point as human beings preempt this from happening. Genocide is occurring right now on this planet. It’s not something of the past, it’s something unfortunately of now, and unfortunately probably will be of the future.”

The late businessman Kirk Kerkorianwho died in 2015, invested $100 million to bring the Armenian Genocide epic to the big screen after other productions weren’t able to escape what’s been dubbed the “denialist lobby.”

Open Road’s “The Promise” hits theaters on April 2.

Thank you for vowing to to be an upstander for human rights!

— Enough Project (@EnoughProject)

Former US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power has joined the #KeepThePromise campaign and vowed to be an upstander for human rights.

Survival Pictures has launched the #KeepThePromise social impact campaign connected to the Armenian Genocide film The Promise.

A number of celebrities and human rights defenders have joined the #KeepThePromise to speak out against injustice like genocide and other human rights violations.

Photo: Getty Images

 

Manchester United hold the advantage against Anderlecht in the Europa League quarter-finals after securing a 1-1 draw in Thursday’s first leg in Brussels.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored a crucial away goal 10 minutes before the break at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, netting from an acute angle to put United ahead, but Leander Dendoncker’s powerful header four minutes from time means the tie is still alive ahead of the return game at Old Trafford.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan has now scored in each of United’s last four Europa League away games, his strike against Anderlecht taking his tally to nine in the past 21 matches.

The Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) Executive Director Bryan Ardouny outlined key priorities in the congressional  submitted to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. In the testimony, Ardouny reiterated the bipartisan letter sent to the Subcommittee, spearheaded by Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), and commended the Members of Congress for signing.

In particular, the Assembly’s testimony calls for: $40 million in U.S. economic assistance to Armenia; $40 million to support Armenia’s efforts to serve as a regional safe haven for refugees; $20 million to implement the Royce-Engel initiative to advance peace; $11 million in U.S. military assistance to Armenia; $8 million to Artsakh; assistance to the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia; regional energy security; and reaffirmation of the U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide. Armenia continues to demonstrate its resilience, which is why the Assembly also strongly supports a second U.S.-Armenia compact of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

The Assembly’s testimony specifically drew attention to Azerbaijan’s deadly cease-fire violations, including last April’s unprecedented offensive that started with the killing of a 12-year-old boy and continued with the gruesome ISIS-style beheading of an Armenian soldier and mutilation of an elderly Armenian couple. Given Azerbaijan’s blatant cease-fire violations, the Assembly called upon the United States to “directly condemn such actions and avoid engaging in false equivalency between the aggressor and those defending themselves” and urged the Subcommittee to cease military funding to Azerbaijan.  America cannot afford it and Azerbaijan does not need it.

Ardouny highlighted the fact that Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity in 301 A.D. and emphasized the importance of safe guarding Christian and other minority communities wherever they may reside. The Assembly testimony also commended the work of the Near East Foundation (NEF) in this regard and urged funding to support NEF’s work in Armenia. In addition to allocating aid to Armenia and Artsakh, Ardouny urged Members to visit Armenia as well as watch the movie titled The Promise, a film which depicts the extraordinary events of the Armenian Genocide and comes to theaters this month.

A Turkish court Wednesday remanded in custody two security officers over their suspected links to the killing of a prominent Armenian-Turkish journalist, Anadolu Agency reports.

Gendarmerie sergeants Haci Sefik Simsek and Bekir Yokus are accused of homicide, being a member of an armed terrorist organization, and attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.

Hrant Dink, founder and editor of bilingual Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper Agos, was shot dead in an Istanbul street in January 2007.

Although a suspect was convicted, the case has been re-investigated several times amid concerns that police conspired to allow Dink’s killing to happen.

Ogun Samast, age 17 at the time of the killing, claimed he murdered Dink for “insulting Turkishness” and was jailed for 23 years in 2011.

Photo: Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia failed to prevent a school siege in Beslan in 2004, in which more than 330 people died.

The operation to end the siege, with the use of heavy weaponry, and the investigation that followed have also been strongly criticised.

The Court concluded that the use of lethal force by security forces had contributed, to some extent, to the casualties among the hostages.

The Court held that Russia had failed to set up an effective legal framework of safeguards against arbitrariness and the use of force, since the applicable legislation had failed to set the most important principles and constraints of the use of force in lawful anti-terrorist operations.

The Court held that Russia was to pay the applicants a total of 2,955,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage, and the applicants’ representatives a total of EUR 88,000 in respect of costs. The individual awards to the applicants took account of the extent of their suffering and of the measures taken by Russia with the aim of compensating and rehabilitating the victims.

The case concerns a terrorist attack on a school building in the city of Beslan, North Ossetia in September 2004.

In the siege, Chechen rebels took more than 1,000 hostages, mostly children.

It ended when Russian forces stormed the building. Survivors say the troops used excessive force.

For more than a decade, survivors and relatives have been asking whether the siege could have been prevented and whether so many people had to die in the rescue operation. So more than 400 of them applied to the European Court of Human Rights.