Category: News

Photo: Getty Images

He might run the world’s biggest social networking site, but not even Mark Zuckerberg is immune to being hacked, the BBC reports.

The Facebook founder’s accounts on sites including Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest appear to have been briefly compromised on Sunday.

A hacker group called Ourmine, which has more than 40,000 Twitter followers, claimed responsibility.

The group bragged about the alleged hacks in a tweet and invited Mr Zuckerberg to contact them.

“Hey @finkd we got access to your Twitter & Instagram & Pinterest, we are just testing your security, please dm us.”

Germany attaches importance to the implementation of an investigation mechanism along the Karabakh line of contact, German Ambassador to Armenia Matthias Kiesler said in Yerevan today.

“Germany, as an OSCE presiding country, hopes that the member states will approve the necessary financing for the implementation of the investigation mechanism and expansion of the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office.

“When Germany assumed the chairmanship of the OSCE this year, it streessed the importance of establishment of an atmosphere of trust at the line of contact. For that we need to expand the authority of Andrzej Kasprzyk’s Office,” the Ambassador said.

“After the agreement reached between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the German presidency is making efforts and taking measures towards creation of those mechanisms,” Matthias Kiesler said.

He voiced hope that the budget would be approved by all OSCE Minsk Group member states.

Ruben Melikyan, Ombudsperson of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Artsakh Republic) has sent a letter to Kersten Steinke Parliamentary Ombudsperson, Head of Bundestag Petitions Committee. The letter reads:
“Dear Ms. Steinke,

As the ombudsperson of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), I would like to express my gratitude for Germany’s decision to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
The decision of the Bundestag means very much to us. We realize that the only reason behind this decision is Germany’s faith in justice and commitment to universal values. For many years, we had the impression that the Turkish lobby in Germany was so strong that they would always be able to block such recognition. However, your nation proved in the best possible way that no one is able to conceal grave crimes or silence the truth in Germany. And that Human Rights have no borders – neither in time nor in space.

Back in 1915, Germany was in alliance with the Ottoman Empire, and many eyewitnesses of the horrible atrocities against Armenians were German nationals that happened to be assigned for duty in Turkey. Consequently, a significant part of the historical data proving the fact of the Armenian Genocide is kept in the German archives.

Dear Madam,

Unfortunately, during the recent years, the world is undergoing through another phase of turbulence and instability. I believe that six years ago, no one would predict the variety of conflicts and crises that we are facing now, and some currently predict more challenges for democracy ahead, inter alia because of the slow economic growth around the world. Nowadays, our duty is to put a maximum effort for strengthening human rights protection in our counties. I myself serve a young democracy that is committed to the European values. We deem our duty to uphold the European standards of human rights and democracy. For that reason, I would very much appreciate your cooperation in bringing the best practices of human rights protection to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Because of the conflict with Azerbaijan, we lack the presence of international NGOs and human rights watchdogs in our country. But we firmly believe that the presence of NGOs and third party observers in Nagorno-Karabakh would not only strengthen our democracy, but also facilitate the resolution of the conflict. We keep alarming the international community about the violations of the ceasefire by Azerbaijan. Less than two months ago, we even witnessed an all-out armed aggression by the Azerbaijani forces, which, if succeeded, would definitely result in another genocide or ethnic cleansing of the Armenians. We even had a number of ISIS-style war crimes committed by Azerbaijani soldiers during the war (see ).

However, there is no third party present here to confirm independently these crimes, which leaves room for speculations and uncertainty. If we had international non-governmental observers, none of these crimes and belligerent actions would remain unconfirmed, and none of the conflict parties would seek a military solution to the conflict, and this would considerably foster the peace process.

Once again, I would like to express my gratitude to you, as a member of Bundestag and the parliamentary ombudsperson, for your historic resolution. Danke, Deutschland!”

The president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJCR), Alexander Boroda, has criticized Turkish authorities for reacting to Bundestag’s recognition of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire with accusations against Germany, Interfax-Religion reports.

“In this particular instance, Turkish authorities have stepped on their own tail. The way Bekir Bozdag [Turkish justice minister] spoke about it, this was done completely unnecessarily. The German approach is different from the Turkish one in that Germany did not disclaim its responsibility for the Holocaust; moreover, it drew the right conclusions from the past,” Boroda was quoted by the FJCR spokesperson as saying.

He was commenting on the Turkish justice minister’s remarks on the resolution that Turkey, unlike Germany, had nothing to be ashamed of, whereas the Germans who “once burnt Jews in their furnaces, are now slandering the Turkish people by accusing them of some genocide.”

Germany too has had relapses of nationalism and fascism, but neo-Nazi groups are present in almost any country, and Germany generally “understands what it has done,” Boroda said.

“I think today the Germans do have the moral right to point out to Turkey, which never recognized the genocide, its ‘wrong assessment of the history’ and the events that took place in the Ottoman Empire. Having made many mistakes in the past, Germany understands that keeping mum on one genocide unfortunately can easily lead the world to another, and for that reason it wants to caution Turkey against further keeping mum on history, which could lead to greater tragedies,” the FJCR president said.

“Things should be called by their names. The truth will help first and foremost Turkey proper, and most importantly, will keep the world away from new possible manifestations of genocide,” Boroda said.

Photo: Mohamed Abdiwahab / AFP

On a visit to Tehran, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with Iran’s Vice-President, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi.

The interlocutors discussed issues related to the development of bilateral relations and exchanged views on urgent international issues.

Ali Akbar Salehi briefed Minister Nalbandian on the implementation of the agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.

The same day Minister Nalabndian had a meeting with Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran.

The joint steps towards the further deepening of mutually beneficial cooperation and the process of implementation of the agreements reached on the highest level were discussed.

The Armenian Foreign Minister briefed Mr. Shamkhani on the efforts towards elimination of consequences of the large scale-military actions Azerbaijan unleashed against Nagorno Karabakh in April. The interlocutors agreed that there is no alternative to the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

During the meeting reference was made to urgent international and regional issues and the efforts towards their settlement.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office hit back Monday at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a blistering row over a German parliamentary vote declaring the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against Armenians, Agence France Presse reports.

Erdogan has angrily condemned last week’s vote on the World War I massacres, charging that the 11 German MPs with Turkish roots who backed it supported “terrorism” by the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), and demanding “blood tests” to see “what kind of Turks they are.”

Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert Monday said that while Berlin also considers the PKK a terrorist group, “to associate individual members of parliament with terrorism is utterly incomprehensible to us.”

“The resolution was a political initiative that emerged from the midst of the Bundestag, which is a democratically elected, independent organ under our constitution,” Seibert told a regular press conference.

“The Bundestag reached a sovereign decision. That must be respected,” Seibert said, adding that this was the message Merkel had given to the Turkish president.

Erdogan – in a bitter reaction to the vote to recognize the 1915-1916 killings as genocide – singled out German Greens party co-leader Cem Ozdemir, one of the instigators of the resolution passed on June 2.

Ozdemir has been placed under police protection after receiving anonymous death threats.

The Turkish community in Germany – which broadly opposes the genocide vote – nonetheless criticized Erdogan Monday for the pressure his government and its supporters had placed on German lawmakers of Turkish origin.

“We find death threats and demands for blood tests abhorrent,” its chairman Gokay Sofuoglu told national news agency DPA.

“I think the era when people were defined by their blood ended in 1945. This is absolutely out of place.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif voiced the country’s readiness to make whatever effort necessary for peace and security across the region, reports.

German Green party leader Cem Ozdemir, a German-Turk who proposed a resolution to recognize the 1915-16 mass killings of Armenians in Turkey as genocide, is under police protection after receiving death threats, the Sunday edition of reports.

“We are thoroughly used to abuse and insults, but we have never experienced such a high number of death threats,” the head of Ozdemir‘s office Marc Berthold told Die Welt.

The Berlin police  increased their presence around Ozdemir‘s flat on Thursday following the almost unanimously approved  recognizing the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

Ozdemir said that extremists were not unique to Germany. “Right-wing radicalism is not a German privilege. Unfortunately it also exists in Turkey and among German Turks,” Ozdemir told the newspaper.

Most death threats come from Turkish nationalists. “I will come to Germany and  kill you,” one man tweeted. Another twwet reads: “We should honor this loose assimilated German Cem Ozdemir with a shoot in the head.”

The threats, whether they arrive with flyers, mail, e-mail or Twitter, are now forwarded by Ozdemir office directly to the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germanyand analyzed there.

A cloth with a drop of papal blood has gone missing from the Cologne Cathedral, German police said. A churchgoer noticed the theft and alerted officials, who urged the thieves to return the relic,  reports.

The perpetrators dislodged a glass container holding the blood of John Paul II from the base of the pope’s statue, police said on Sunday. The theft took place during the previous night.

“Although the material value is low, the spiritual value is a lot bigger,” the cathedral’s provost Gerd Bachner said, according to the police statement.

The theft was first noticed by a visitor who alerted the cathedral usher on Sunday.

The Cologne Cathedral has housed the cloth since 2013, honoring the late pontiff who visited the church in 1980. The relic was placed in the container so believers could touch it.