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14 Yerevan market blast casualties are identified

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Fourteen of those who died as a result of Sunday’s explosion at the Surmalu shopping marked have been identified. Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned about this from the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia.

And eight others are still considered missing.

Two of the casualties, however, have not been identified yet.

Those identified are: Misak Margaryan (born in 1964), Anahit Mkhitaryan (born in 1967), Jemma Nazaryan (born in 1960), Anahit Khalatyan, Vardan Kocharyan (born in 1960), Gayane Avetisyan (born in 1966), Aram Hayrapetyan (born in 1980), Vachagan Yeghoyan (born in 2000), Erna Grigoryan (born in 1980), Harutyun Garakyan (born in 1987), Mariam Khachatryan (born in 1992), Sirarpi Khachatryan (born in 1994), Marat Shahbazyan (born in 2018 ), and Hrachya Sargsyan (born in 1976).

In addition, 60 people were administered to hospitals, seven of them continue to receive treatment there, whereas the rest received corresponding medical assistance and were discharged

Turkish provocations over the Aegean include three dog fights between F-16s on Greece’s holy days

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On one of Greece’s most important religious holidays, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Turkey carried out 39 airspace violations over the Aegean Sea, rescinding an agreement between the two nations to avoid provocations on religious celebrations.

Turkish aircraft carried provocative overflights over Greek islands, particularly in the northeastern, central, and southern Aegean regions.

More specifically, there were 39 violations and 11 infringements of Greek airspace by 18 Turkish F-16s, which flew in nine formations. Of the 18, ten were armed, while three engaged in dog fights with Greek fighters. It should be noted that out of the 39 violations, three were overflights.

In particular, a pair of Turkish F-16 aircraft performed an overflight at 11:05 over Kinaro and at 11:08 over Mavra Lerou, at 27,000 feet. At 11:09, a second pair of Turkish F-16s made another overflight over Kandeliosa at 23,000 feet.

According to the Hellenic National Defence General Staff sources, the Turkish aircraft were identified and intercepted 

following international rules according to standard practice.

Based on the Memorandum signed between Greece and Turkey, the two countries had agreed to refrain from provocations during national and religious holidays.

Armenia’s Leaders Continue capitulating to Azerbaijan

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By Harut Sassounian

Azerbaijan’s order to evacuate around 150 families from three Armenian villages in the Lachin Corridor, which connects Armenia to Artsakh, has alarmed Armenians worldwide.

As a result of Azerbaijan’s ultimatum, Armenians in the villages of Bertzor, Aghavno and Sus are obliged to move elsewhere in Artsakh or Armenia. After losing a devastating war in 2020, Armenia and Artsakh, both suffering from poor leadership, are demanding that the villagers comply with Azerbaijan’s demand to leave their homes and churches by the deadline of August 25.

The source of the problem is the joint “statement” of November 10, 2020 signed at the end of the war by the Prime Minister of Armenia, President of Azerbaijan, and President of Russia. Even though the first line of that “statement” declared “a complete ceasefire,” this is the most unusual kind of ceasefire in the history of all wars. Instead of stopping where the opposing armies had reached, the Armenian side agreed to turn over to Azerbaijan large areas of land not conquered by Azerbaijan. Furthermore, the Prime Minister of Armenia, without any authority, signed a document relinquishing lands, including most of Artsakh and its surrounding territories, over which he had no legal authority. Therefore, the Nov. 10, 2020 trilateral agreement should be considered null and void.

Paragraph 6 of that agreement stated that “The Lachin corridor (5 km. wide), which will provide for communication between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia and at the same time will not affect the city of Shushi, shall remain under the control of peacekeeping troops of the Russian Federation. The Parties have agreed that a plan for the construction of a new route along the Lachin corridor shall be determined within the next three years, providing communication between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, with the subsequent redeployment of Russian peacekeeping troops to protect the route. The Republic of Azerbaijan shall guarantee traffic safety for citizens, vehicles and goods in both directions along the Lachin Corridor.”

This paragraph, like many others, has created problems due to its unclear wording. Almost two years after signing this agreement, during which the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan had several face-to-face meetings, the Armenian government did not bother to clarify the language of Paragraph 6. Armenian officials, after approving Azerbaijan’s plans, kept repeating that the alternate route to bypass the Lachin Corridor was to be built only after three years and that Azerbaijan hastily built its segment of the alternate route. In fact, the 2020 agreement stated that the alternate road will be built within, not after, three years. Armenia is planning to complete its section of the alternate road to Lachin after 250 days from this month.

Armenian officials falsely reassured the families of the three Armenian villages within the Lachin Corridor that they have plenty of time to resolve their problems, assuring them that they may remain in their homes. When Azerbaijan insisted on the immediate removal of these villagers, the Armenian families were given less than three weeks to move without having anywhere to go.

To make matters worse, Artsakh’s Minister of Territorial Management and Infrastructure, Hayk Khanumyan, warned the residents of the three Armenian villages that should they burn their houses before leaving, they will not receive the promised 10 million dram ($24,000) compensation, which is insufficient to purchase a new house. The Minister was referring to the practice of many Artsakh Armenians who burned their homes before leaving their houses after the 2020 war. Burning one’s home is a heartbreaking decision, but it is equally upsetting to leave your own house to your sworn enemy. I watched this week the disturbing video of a father burning his family home before leaving. What did the Minister expect these villagers to do? To clean their houses, leave a cooked meal on the dining table with a bottle of champagne, and a welcome sign on the door for their Azeri enemies?

In addition to turning over to Azerbaijan large parts of territories in and around Artsakh which Azerbaijan had not occupied at the time of the ceasefire, Azerbaijan conquered additional lands in both Artsakh and inside Armenia’s borders since the end of the 2020 war. Furthermore, Azerbaijan, contrary to the 2020 agreement, is still holding Armenian prisoners of war, whereas Armenia foolishly turned over all the Azeri prisoners of war shortly after the ceasefire. Armenian authorities not only do not make any efforts for the return of the Armenian prisoners and the liberation of Armenia’s occupied territories, they do not even talk or complain about them. Before complying with any of Pres. Ilham Aliyev’s orders, Armenia should first demand that Azerbaijan keep its own obligations under the 2020 agreement. It is understandable that after losing the war Armenia is in a weakened and subservient position. However, mismanaging the situation due to Armenian leaders’ incompetence and capitulating to the enemy’s every whim and desire is unacceptable. Such spineless behavior encourages Azerbaijan to demand and obtain more concessions.

With the shutting down of the Lachin corridor which connects Armenia to Artsakh, the remaining Armenians of Artsakh will be isolated, surrounded by Azerbaijan. They will lose their access to Armenia, will be cut off from electricity, heat and internet, and will be sooner or later taken over by Azerbaijan. Sadly, Artsakh and Armenia, after losing the 2020 war, are on a downward spiral. Competent new leaders may not be capable of reversing Armenia’s calamitous situation, but at least they won’t let it get any worse.

How Amazon Consumed All of Commerce

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Over the past twenty-plus years, Amazon’s gone from bookstore to everything store. Here are all the companies

Image: Gizmodo/Getty

By Shoshana Wodinsky

Gizmodo is 20 years old! To celebrate the anniversary, we’re looking back at some of the most significant ways our lives have been thrown for a loop by our digital tools.

If you’ve ever tried to research how the Big Bad Tech Monopolies of our time got so big and bad, you’ll find that these stories are typically pretty straightforward. Google, for example, started as a search engine company in the mid-90s and spent decades buying and bullying competitors until it swallowed just about all of the search engine market. Facebook started as a social network, and then copied or bought out the competition until it became the most popular social network on the planet. But Amazon… well, Amazon’s a bit different.

When a younger (and less bald) Jeff Bezos opened the platform to the public in 1995, he promoted it as “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore”; it was an e-alternative to the Barnes & Nobles and Waldenbooks people knew and loved. In 2022, it moved on from a bookstore to an “everything store,” but even that doesn’t fully describe the scope of what Amazon is.

The same company also controls a third of the world’s cloud computing tech while also being a market leader in home security systems. It develops vaccines and drones and is equally cozy with law enforcement and luxury clothing brands, and owns the leading platforms for gamers, movie buffs, and deeply dehumanizing on-demand labor. In 2019, the company’s sprawling worldwide warehouse presence took up more than 38 Pentagons-worth of physical space. Over the past two years, that footprint’s nearly doubled.

In other words, this company is big—arguably too big—in a way that makes keeping tabs on all of Amazon’s brands and businesses a near-impossible ask. So we did it for you.

Using public records, we’ve done our best to catalog the brands, businesses, and subsidiaries that Amazon’s bought and built up as part of its relentless quest to take over anything and everything it can.

A quick disclaimer: in order to keep things from sprawling into something as long as a textbook (and just as boring), we’re only including the company’s many, many businesses here in the U.S. This blog won’t go into the company’s international footprint, which—at least from our research—seems to stretch into at least thirteen other countries. In 2017, for example, Amazon bought one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in the Middle East before also gobbling up one of the region’s premiere delivery startups soon after. Amazon also owns a payment processor in India, a solar energy station in Japan, and an ocean freight operation in China. But just getting your head around Amazon’s U.S. acquisitions is an overwhelming feat. Okay, take a deep breath, and let’s dive in.

Amazon’s Book Businesses

It’s not a coincidence that Bezos picked books as the basis for what would eventually become a hulking e-commerce empire. As he succinctly put it in one 1997 interview, there were (and are) simply Too Many Books for any given brick-and-mortar store to reasonably carry—but not too many that a newfangled online storefront like Amazon could handle. That same year, the company boasted a whopping 2.5 million book titles available for purchase on its platform, netting $148 million in profits for the soon-to-be public company.

Even at the time, those numbers were downright quaint. But they still dwarfed online sales from rivals like Barnes and Noble, who tried getting a leg up on Amazon in 1998 by partnering with Bertelsmann, a major German publisher, in a multi-million dollar deal that put a raft of European titles up for sale on Barnes and Noble’s website.

Just a week after those two announced their team-up, Amazon announced its first-ever acquisitions: a trio of internet upstarts that were bought for a collective $55 million in cash. One of these companies was the Internet Movie Database (more on that later). The other two—Bookpages and Telebook—were some of the leading online bookstores in the UK and Germany, respectively. By the time Amazon later rebranded the two companies as Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de, the Barnes and Noble site was bringing in about a fourth of Amazon’s online earnings, and Bertelsmann didn’t have a website at all.

Around this time, Barnes and Noble was also striking up partnerships with digital marketplaces selling used books that were rare, or out-of-print. So naturally, this meant Amazon would end up buying one of the biggest players in this space. For an estimated $200 million in stock, Amazon announced in 1999 that it was taking over Exchange.com, an e-tailer that, itself, owned two platforms specializing in hard-to-find media: MusicFile specialized in rare records and CD’s, while Bibliofind specialized in rare books.

In 2008, Amazon further cemented itself in the indie book world by acquiring AbeBooks, another one of these marketplaces that boasted 110 million rare, used, and out-of-print titles for sale. In 2011, AbeBooks bought out its biggest European competitor, ZVAB, bringing thousands of booksellers and tens of millions more rare titles under its (and Amazon’s) wing in the process. Pretty soon after, Amazon acquired another European rare bookseller, The Book Depository. Next it bought the hugely popular online comic store Comixology which has proven to be one of its most controversial purchases as increasingly vocal fans have melted down over changes to its app.

Each of these buys paved the way for a future where buying a book online typically means buying it from an Amazon property. But that wasn’t enough. In 2005, it acquired BookSurge, a small-ish print-on-demand supplier catering to small-ish independent publishers. Not long after, Amazon told these same indie outfits that it wouldn’t sell their wares unless BookSurge was the one printing them out; when these publishers revolted, the company straight up yeeted the buy button from these bookseller’s Amazon pages.

Read more on: https://gizmodo.com/every-company-that-amazon-has-acquired-in-20-years-1849142527?utm_medium=email&utm_source=pocket_hits&utm_campaign=POCKET_HITS-EN-DAILY-SPONSORED&MORNINGBREW%27S-2022_08_15&sponsored=0&position=5&scheduled_corpus_item_id=23475528-63fa-4ed6-b70c-4b19f0273e15

Historian Taner Akcam put Armenia in shame for neglecting Professor Vahakn N. Dadrian’s grave was overgrown with weeds-bushes. Worse no marker on the grave

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I share some images from my dear Professor Vahakn N. Dadrian’s grave with great shock and sadness. After persistent and patient research, the director of the Ararat-Eskijian Museum, Maggie Goschin, found out that Dadrian’s grave, a cemetery in Yerevan, where he was interred in 2019, had been left unattended and was overgrown with weeds-bushes. Worse still, there was no marker on the grave.

Only after consultation with the cemetery administration, the grave site could be located. Dadrian doesn’t deserve this. While many foreign dignitaries are honored on the road to Yerevan’s Tsitsernakaberd Memorial, it is unacceptable and an immense shame that the grave of the founder of modern Armenian Genocide Research lies in an unkempt and forgotten in a cemetery without even a grave marker.I am unsure who was responsible for Dadrian’s burial or who was in charge of building a grave for him. Whatever the reasons might be, I’m sure everybody will agree with me that this is a great shame and unacceptable.I hope those responsible will take immediate action and give Dadrian the grave he deserves. Instead of blaming each other, we should get together and do whatever is necessary. Büyük şok ve üzüntü içindeyim. Sizlerle, Ermeni Soykırımı Araştırmalarının kurucusu, Prof. Vahakn Dadrian’ın mezarının resimlerini paylaşıyorum.Dadrian’nın naşı 2019 yılında Ermenistan’da götürülmüş ve orada defnedilmişti.Los Angeles Ararat Eskijian Müzesi Müdürü Maggie Goschin’in ısrarlı aramaları sonunda mezarın yeri bulundu. O da ancak mezarlıklar müdürlüğü ile ısrarlı görüşmelerden sonra…

Dadrian, bırakın mezar taşını, tek bir işaret bile konmaksızın gömülmüştü ve mezarı yabani otlarla kaplıydı.Erivan’daki soykırım anıtına giden yolda, soykırım sırasında Ermenilere yardımcı olan yabancıların anısına küçük hatıra plaketler, heykeller, ağaçlar dikilimiştir. Her adımda hatırlarsınız onları… Ve ama Soykırım Araştırmaları kurucusu ise, bir mezarlığa kimsesiz birisi gibi atılmış…

Mezarını yabani otlar kaplamış ve üstelik tek bir mezar işareti bile yok.Bu tüm Ermeniler ve onların dostları, hepimiz için büyük bir utanç kaynağıdır.Ömrünü, Ermeni soykırımı araştırmalarına adamış, bize üstünde yükseleceğimiz bir zemin sunmuş Dadrian bunu hak etmiyor. Görüşlerini elbette eleştireceğiz ama ömrünü bu yola adamış bir insana yapılması gereken bu değildir.Dadrian’ın Ermenistan’daki mezarının yapılmasından kimler sorumludur bilmiyorum. Ve burada kimseyi de suçlama taraftarı değilim. Ortada giderilmesi gereken büyük bir ihmal vardır.Buradan, hepimizi konu hakkında hassas davranmaya ve üzerimize düşeni yapmaya davet etmek istiyorum.Kendim ve kuruluşum adına elimden geleni yapacağımın bilinmesini isterim.

Was Surmalu Pashinyan attempt to Divert public attention from the surrender of the Lachin Corridor or a terrorist, sabotage act?

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he tragedy that took place on August 14 in the center of Yerevan, in the “Surmalu” shopping center, which caused many victims and dozens of people to be injured, gives rise to many questions.

And, unfortunately, these are still “smoking” questions, that is, questions waiting for answers. Let’s highlight a few key questions. The first question to be asked before the fire and explosion should have been the following. With the permission of which state body, in general, in any single place in the center of the capital, a huge amount of explosive materials and products were allowed to be stored? Who was supposed to control it all? Who will be charged for the negligence and sloppiness that resulted in the most serious consequences? The question also arises as to what volume of pyrotechnic materials and products were actually stored in the territory of the “Surmalu” shopping center. Immediately the next question, which can be answered by experts. What was the magnitude of the explosion, and could the ignition and explosion of stored explosives have caused such consequences and destruction? Question. Was the incident a tragedy caused by negligence and irresponsibility and a chain of unfortunate events in such conditions, or was it a terrorist or sabotage act? Let’s note that there are not a few alarms about the placement of mines in the subway, state and other institutions. Hence the suspicion of the planned action. Planned by whom? As is known, Pashinyan’s government will hand over Berdzor to the enemy in 10 days. Could the Pashinyan government divert public attention from the surrender of Lachin Corridor with such a tragedy? Nikol Pashinyan and his group have long proved that they are capable of any meanness. Could the enemy, in the person of the Azerbaijani terrorist leader Aliyev, resort to such an operation for a number of reasons? What guarantee is there that when Nikol Pashinyan opens the gates and roads of Armenia wider to his beloved Turks and Azerbaijani Turks, there will not be new “surmalus” in Yerevan and in other settlements of Armenia that have not yet been handed over to the enemy-Turks? There are absolutely no guarantees. No less questions arise about the developments that followed the explosion. The first. the police were ABSENT for hours. “Surmalu” shopping center, i.e., the area directly adjacent to the epicenter of the explosion, was going out whenever and wherever. Where were the “fed-and-drinked” black and red berets who received free food billions in bonuses, who were so abundantly bred by the Nicolas government and who are anointing protesting citizens, rewarding women and girls, elderly people to beat children, break their arms and legs? , in general, for misanthropy and cruelty. Where were those Nikola-“policemen”? Why didn’t they cordon off that part of the city to prevent unnecessary and unnecessary accumulation of people, which would inevitably prevent rescuers, firefighters, and ambulance crews from doing their work quickly? Who, what cynicism-soaked Nicolaitan “preacher” had the idea to record a girl playing a ruler against the background of smoking ruins, people’s misery? Who decided that volunteers were needed, or even if it was a spontaneous manifestation of people, who was going to organize it all… There are more and more questions, but the main thing that was seen in the period following the tragedy of August 14 was the complete or absolute absence of state power in the country, city power in Yerevan. The question is not that someone who considers himself the Speaker of the National Assembly, who enjoys wasting state funds, for example, on frolicking in Bali, went to gloat at the disaster site. It is not an “appearance of power”. The complete absence of state power was seen after the explosion by the uncoordinated, poorly organized, uncoordinated actions of the force and specialized circles (Ministry of Internal Affairs, police, NSS, health sector). The complete lack of authority was seen in the fact that no one came out with a concrete statement and no appropriate steps were taken through all state propaganda, including the suspension of mass entertainment events and gatherings of people, including the involvement of a certain number of trucks and appropriate heavy equipment from the private sector, including – coordination of volunteers, including providing regular information to the population and warning people living in nearby residential buildings. It did not appear to be all that any authority should be concerned with in such cases. And in general, as long as Nikol Pashinyan and his ilk are in power, such tragedies will continue to happen in Armenia. Those who came to power with coffins can only bring death, massacre, destruction and disaster, which is what they are doing. So far, unpunished. Armen Hakobyan

Wally Sarkeesian, Deeply saddened by the disaster at the “Surmalu” shopping center explosion

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Deeply saddened by the disaster that has occurred to the Armenian people, the tragedy that happened in Yerevan’s Surmalu market.

My deepest condolences to the families & relatives of the victims for the tragic loss. Wishing swift recovery to the injured. Strength, courage, and patience to all of us.

Accordingly, there are 56 injured, and 18 others are considered missing as a result of this deadly blast.

And as a result of the calls received by the 911 hotline, the following persons are considered missing in the area of the Surmalu market:

, 18 others considered missing

Aram Hayrapetyan, born in 1981

Marat Shahbazyan

Sirarpi Khachatryan

Mariam Khachatryan

Harut Garakyan

Gagik Karapetyan

Artavazd Hayrapetyan

Erna Grigoryan, born in 1980

Hrachya Sargsyan, born in 1976

Vachagan Yeghoyan, born in 2000

Vanik Amirkhanyan

Ksenia Badalyan, born in 1981

Aram Harutyunyan

Davit Mkhitaryan

Vanik Karapetyan

Narine Karapetyan

Valod Karapetyan

Mehri Tahreri (Iranian citizen)

DW Report: ‘Brazilian Escobar’ and a Turkish jet filled with cocaine, The same plane had carried Turkish President Erdogan to safety during the 2016 fake coup”

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A jet full of cocaine in Brazil shows Turkey’s increasing role in global drug trafficking. The UN drugs agency says the cocaine is sent via Turkey to EU countries, as well as Eastern European and Middle Eastern nations.

On August 4, 2021, Brazilian federal police boarded a jet registered with the Istanbul-based ACM Air charter company in the northern city of Fortaleza. The private jet, which bore the tail code TC-GVA, was carrying one Belgian-Spanish passenger, four Turkish crew members and, police discovered, 1.3 tons of cocaine in 24 suitcases, with a market value of €45.6 million. 

Map: routes of cocaine from Latin America to Turkey, from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia

According to documents seen by DW, the jet had begun its journey in Malaga, Spain, and, after clearing inbound customs in Fortaleza, Brazil, flew to Ribeirao Preto, where it was scheduled to pick up four passengers bound for Brussels with a stop in Portugal. But, when it was raided by Brazilian police in Fortaleza, the only passenger was a man named Angel Gonzalez Valdez. 

Footage of the raid was broadcast by media across Brazil and Latin America, as well as in Spain, Belgium and Turkey, and shared on social media by Turkish opposition politicians and prominent Brazilians abroad. 

By the end of the year, Valdez would die of cancer in custody, the pilot would be sent back to Turkey, where he was charged for his role in the suspected cocaine trafficking, and the Turkish press would be asking how a formerly state-owned jet — indeed, the plane that had carried President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to safety during the 2016 coup — had ended up stuffed with drugs and impounded in Brazil. 

Trafficking via Turkey 

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Turkey is increasingly becoming a transit point for global cocaine trafficking. From 2014 to 2020, the amount of cocaine seized in the country rose almost fivefold, according to the UNODC. In 2020, about 2 tons were captured.  

Antoine Vella, a researcher with UNODC, told DW that Turkish traffickers are acquiring a greater share of the European cocaine market, with Turkey mostly used as a transit country for cocaine destined for southeastern and eastern Europe. “Large quantities have been seized in individual cases, both in Turkey and in Latin American countries en route to Turkey in 2020 and 2021,” Vella said. 

Cocaine is trafficked to Turkey both via air couriers and maritime shipments. “Air couriers often use Istanbul airport to land and may travel from South America as well as Africa,” Vella said. “The recent increase is likely driven by the maritime shipments.” 

‘Brazilian Pablo Escobar’ 

Documents and information obtained by DW suggest that a former Brazilian military police officer named Sergio Roberto de Carvalho may have been behind the Turkish plane that was seized in Fortaleza. According to media reports, Brazilian police also suspect’s Carvalho’s involvement. Malaga, the point of departure for the Turkish airplane’s flight to Brazil, is known to be a base that he has used previously.  

Carvalho, aka “the Brazilian Pablo Escobar,” is thought to be one of the world’s principal drug barons and purportedly trafficked nearly 50 tons of cocaine to Europe from 2018 through 2021. According to Spanish media, he was living in Spain with a fake Surinamese passport in the name of “Paul Wouter.” Carvalho was detained as Wouter when the Spanish police confiscated a cargo of 1.7 tons of cocaine — in Paul Wouter’s name — on a ship inbound from Suriname. 

Because “Wouter” had a clean record, Carvalho made bail after four months, paying a fee of €200,000 while the case went through court. After almost two years and just before the court was to present its final judgment in August 2020, Carvalho’s lawyer presented the judge with a death certificate declaring that “Wouter” had died and been cremated. The case was put on hold.  

Months later, according to media reports, the Brazilian police informed Spanish authorities and Interpol that Paul Wouter was, in fact, Carvalho, and that he had left Spain with a different passport after having plastic surgery. Interpol initiated simultaneous operations targeting Carvalho’s organization in Brazil, Spain, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates and Colombia. Carvalho himself, however, escaped. 

Police found passports for multiple identities at his home in Portugal, as well as a van filled with €12 million in cash. Portuguese police believe that the van was intended as an exit plan.  

A source told DW that the three passengers missing from the plane in Fortaleza were relatives of Carvalho’s who had decided not to board at the last minute. The source said the Brazilian Escobar was known to have used companies in Dubai, Brazil, Portugal and elsewhere to launder billions of dollars. Sources also said Carvalho was using business connections in Turkey to launder money. 

Suspicions in Fortaleza 

Employees with ground handlers Lider Aviacao at the airport in Fortaleza testified that ACM Air had insisted on paying in cash for the ground services, which, for security reasons, is an uncommon practice in the aviation industry. The employees also testified that the jet had taxied to a hangar other than the one designated.

Contacted by DW, ACM Air employees did not reveal who had paid the €160,000 to charter the jet, which the company had bought from the Turkish state in 2017.  

Angel Gonzalez Valdez, the lone passenger, was arrested along with the Turkish pilot, while the Turkish crew was interrogated. Valdez’s attorney told DW that Valdez said that the pilot bore primary responsibility for the drugs onboard.  

“Angel admitted he didn’t know much about the operation and he just followed the pilot’s orders,” said the attorney, Maria das Dores Goncalvez Cavalcante. 

The €160,000 would likely have been a hefty bill for a solo flight for the 61-year-old Valdez, an engineer who, according to documents examined by DW, had twice declared bankruptcy. On top of that, Valdez, who died in custody of terminal cancer on October 24 and was not convicted, reportedly told his lawyer in September that he would leave €500,000, paid by a third party, to his family. 

After almost four months in custody in Brazil, the pilot, a retired Turkish Air Force officer, was released for lack of evidence — only to be detained when he arrived back in Turkey on December 26, 2021, and charged four days later. One day after the pilot’s arrest, Seyhmus Ozkan, the owner of ACM Air, was arrested in Turkey.  

Cocaine’s long journey 

The most recently reported seizure of cocaine en route to Turkey from Latin America came in February, when approximately 44 kilograms (97 pounds) of pure cocaine were seized in a banana container during inspections carried out at the port in Guayaquil, Ecuador. In fact, Ecuador is a name that comes up frequently in reports of cocaine shipments to Turkey.

Read more on: https://www.dw.com/en/brazilian-escobar-and-a-turkish-jet-filled-with-cocaine/a-61409668

Book explores why Israel failed to recognize the Armenian Genocide – review

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Israel Charny explores how Turkey pressured the First International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide to silence talk of the Armenian Genocide.

By GLENN C. ALTSCHULER

Members of the Armenian community in Israel attend a demonstration against Israel’s stance on the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks outside the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem; the sign on the left reads: ‘Judaism is for acknowledgement of Armenian Genocide, the State of Israel against?’ (credit: RONEN ZVULUN / REUTERS)

In the spring of 1982, shortly before the First International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide was scheduled to begin in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the Turkish government demanded that the six sessions on the Armenian Genocide (out of 150 overall) be canceled, and Armenian speakers prohibited from participating. If the Israeli government, which was co-sponsoring the conference, did not comply, Turkish authorities threatened to end protection to Jews escaping from Iran and Syria through their country.

Under pressure from Israeli officials, Elie Wiesel resigned as president of the conference; Yad Vashem withdrew its offer to host the opening ceremonies; Tel Aviv University backed out as a co-sponsor; the Szold National Institute for Research in the Behavioral Sciences in Jerusalem and Hunter College of the City University of New York stopped participating; many speakers, including professors Yehuda Bauer and Alan Dershowitz canceled; donations from philanthropists dried up; pre-conference coverage in the Jewish press was curtailed; and the number of registrants shrank from 600 to 300.

Nonetheless, Israel Charny, the originator and director of the conference, decided to go ahead. The proceedings are now regarded as an important event in the development of the field of genocide studies, marking the first recognition of the Armenian Genocide in an international setting.

In Israel’s Failed Response to the Armenian Genocide, Charny, an American-Israeli psychologist, co-founder of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, author of How Can We Commit The Unthinkable: Genocide: The Human Cancer and editor-in-chief of the two-volume Encyclopedia of Genocide, revisits the conference, attempts by the Foreign Ministry to torpedo it, and issues a scathing indictment of Israel’s refusal, then and now, to officially recognize genocidal wars against other peoples.

Understandably, perhaps, even after 40 years, Charny approaches his subject with a mixture of pride and pain. Intent on setting the record straight and speaking truth to power, he steps on his analysis by going over familiar ground, repeating himself in clumsy prose, and inserting long lists of panels, presenters, book titles and extended excerpts from essays written by him and other human rights advocates in the 1980s and 1990s. And on occasion, Charny seems determined to settle scores.

That said, serious consideration of Charny’s claim – “the basic and horrendous commonality” in all genocides, including the Armenian tragedy, should override obsessions about uniqueness and a consensus definition of the “category name” – is as urgently necessary as it has ever been.

Because he defied the Israeli government in 1982, Charny states, the rector of Tel Aviv University denied him tenure at the School of Social Work, despite favorable recommendations by the relevant committees. The decision “hurt deeply” and “may have contributed psychosomatically” to “the development of cancer a few years later.” Charny sued Tel Aviv University, was appointed a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and for a time collected a TAU pension along with his Hebrew University salary. Grateful in retrospect for being forced to choose between personal, professional and financial security and fundamental ethical values, the experience, he now believes, was “a Turkish delight.”

Charny maintains that in response to Turkey’s threats and the Israeli government’s intervention, he considered reducing the visibility of the Armenian sessions at the conference, but not eliminating them. He indicates as well, rather contradictorily, that he was convinced that “threats of this sort should never be honored to any extent whatsoever.” And then lets himself off the hook by adding that an official of the US State Department assured him, “almost without any reservation or uncertainty,” that the Turks were bluffing.

In any event, Charny makes a compelling case that the principal reason Israeli leaders opposed the conference was their determination to keep the Holocaust, the “unbearable cataclysmic tragedy” of the Jewish people, “at the ultimate untouchable apex of a hierarchy of genocidal suffering… the greatest evil ever seen in human history.” 

Wiesel, who “believed entirely – naively and, one might say, messianically – in the virtue, decency and integrity of the miraculous State of Israel,” Charny writes, warned him “not to use genocide in plural.”

When Jews deny genocide

Charny emphasizes that he is a Zionist, proud of Israel’s survival in the face of enemies determined to destroy the Jewish state, and its efforts “to achieve a secure country that is basically still largely democratic.” He also blasts Israel’s quest for exclusivity and superiority; for refusing to acknowledge “the genocidal massacre of unarmed civilian Arabs” in Kafr Kassem in 1956; for indifference toward the forced expulsion of the Rohingya in Myanmar; persecution of Uighurs in China; and “genocidal orgies” in Yemen; for arm sales to Azerbaijan, “where there are gathering storms of potential genocide;” and for recent “fascist trends,” including discrimination against non-Jewish people who are fully entitled citizens of Israel.

Irrepressibly candid and combative at age 91, Charny has thrown down the gauntlet. Whether or not they “claim to be the most important and chosen victim people,” he insists, those who have “experienced fiendish genocidal destruction” should have “heightened sensitivity and caring for others who became victims.” And it is unnecessary, unproductive and unjust for them “to continue denying hard historical facts” about the commission of brutal acts of genocide.

The writer is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.

Children among dozens killed in Egypt church fire

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Children are among at least 41 people killed, and 14 injured after a fire broke out at a church in Giza’s Imbaba neighborhood in greater Cairo on Sunday,

according to a spokesperson for the Egyptian Coptic Church citing health officials.It is unclear how many children were killed in the fire at at Abu Sefein church, but it was crowded with worshippers attending Sunday mass, Coptic Church spokesperson Archpriest Moussa Ibrahim said.At least two officers and three civil protection service members were injured responding to the fire, Egypt’s interior ministry announced in a Facebook post.

The statement added that the fire started around 9 a.m. local time and was caused by an electrical failure in an air conditioning unit on the church’s second floor.