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Masked demonstrator takes down Turkish flag on Air Force base in Diyarbakır

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DİYARBAKIR
A masked demonstrator took down the Turkish flag inside of an Air Force base in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır during protests that erupted June 8, following the n_67567_1funeral of a man killed during clashes in Lice. The demonstrator was photographed by Agence France-Presse photo reporter İlyas Akengin, as the demonstrator climbed the flagpole after jumping over the walls surrounding Diyarbakır’s 2nd Air Force Command.

“A masked person among the demonstrators, some of them children, jumped in from the main entrance of the base and climbed the flag pole in the vehicle control zone between two wire fences. A team [of soldiers] was sent to the area and fired two warning shots in the air, but the person took our flag from the pole,” the Turkish General Staff said in a statement.

Syrian Armenians call to save Aleppo from destruction

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June 9, 2014 – 17:08 AMT

Armenian population of Aleppo issued a plea to save the cradle of Diaspora from demolition. In a Perio News Facebook page, the Syrian Armenians urge Foreign Ministry to 179680collect funds for reconstruction of the Armenian district of Nor Gyugh, destroyed in sniper attacks and voice a strong protest for pro-Turkish militants’ actions against Armenian-populated regions of Syria.

The Syrian Armenians call on their compatriots to unite in saving the Armenian community and raise worldwide awareness of their situation.

The continued rocket fire by rebel forces in the direction of the mostly-Armenian-populated Nor Gyugh neighborhood of Aleppo has forced officials to declare the area a disaster zone, and threatens the survival of the city’s Armenian community, Asbarez said.

The Aleppo News Agency reported that incessant rocket fire from rebel forces, a significant number of which are reportedly Turks or radical Islamists, continued in Nor Gyugh, endangering civilians and causing massive destruction.

Residential buildings in Nor Gyugh have been destroyed or partially demolished, while Armenian community centers and local businesses have been damaged as a result of continued shelling.

Nor Gyugh residents are fleeing the neighborhood, some heading toward the seaside city of Latakia, which is already overflowing with Armenian refugees from the insurgence of Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist groups in Kessab earlier this spring. Others are seeking refuge in other parts of Aleppo that are not currently under heavy rocket fire, while some are relocating to the basement of the St. Gregory the Illuminator Church, which was damaged earlier this week as a result of the rebel attacks.

Armenian community institutions in Nor Gyugh have also sustained heavy damages, among them the Karen Jeppe Jemaran, the Zavarian and Sahakian schools, as well as the Zavarian and Sahakian kindergartens, the Armenian Catholic Holy Trinity and Zvartnots School, the Arevelk print shop, the Armenian Relief Society’s clinic and social service center and residential building that are owned by the Prelacy.

Armenian-owned businesses and stores, as well as residences are either in complete or partial destruction, making life unbearable for the citizens of the town.

 Source: PanARMENIAN.Net
Photo:Maria Gabrielyan

Armenia warns Azerbaijan after deadly échaufourrées

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Armenia Azerbaijan has threatened “serious consequences” after two of its soldiers were killed on its border with the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan.

arton100598-480x270According to the Armenian army, Andranik Yeghoyan, 26, and Boris Gasparian, 22, were killed Thursday by a sniper in the army of Azerbaijan located about 70 km southeast of Yerevan.

“For several days, the enemy has created tension by misinformation and various political provocations on the border of Nakhichevan”, said Friday Artsrun Hovannisian, the spokesman of the Ministry of Defence. “We lost two soldiers in the wake of yesterday’s shooting. The enemy was then mastered. “

There was no official reaction to the time of the Azerbaijani side.

Violations of the cease-fire on the border between Armenia and Nakhichevan were very rare, unlike other sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border long and “line of contact” around Nagorno-Karabakh. Yet there armed incidents appear to have increased somewhat since last year. Azerbaijani soldier serving in Nakhchivan was killed Monday.

The fatal shooting that killed two Armenian military prompted the Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian hold an emergency meeting in Yerevan with Andrzej Kasprzyk, the Head of the OSCE after the ceasefire regime fire in the zone of the Karabakh conflict.

According Hovannisian, Ohanian asked Kasprzyk help ease tensions on the front lines. The Minister warned that “the situation has serious consequences for Azerbaijan,” said Hovannisian.

The incidents led Armenia to accuse Baku of torpedoing the latest international efforts in Karabakh peace process. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Shavarsh Kocharian said Ilham Aliyev specifically tried to scuttle a new meeting with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan, wanted by U.S. mediators, Russian and French meeting.

“The mediators intend to try to end this impasse,” said Kocharian. “This is in contrast with the actions of Azerbaijan. “” They do everything to prevent a step in the negotiation process, “he has said.

Monday, June 9, 2014,
Claire © armenews.com

delegationArmenian to NATO raises problem of Turkey’s involvement in Kessab events

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Armenia’s parliamentary delegation, which participated in a meeting of the Political Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, May 30 to June 1, Turkey Kessabraised the issue of Kessab.

Specifically, the Armenian MPs stated that Turkey, which is a NATO member, not only allowed gunmen to enter Kessab through its territory, but also provided financial aid to them.

“The Turkish representative reacted at once, saying that Turkey’s government had nothing in common with Syria developments and did not sponsor any insurgent groups, which is untrue. Numerous facts prove this [Turkey’s involvement]. Our delegation requested that NATO think of the necessary measures to prevent its member-states from resorting to such steps,” Head of the Armenian delegation Koryun Nahapetyan told reporters on Monday.

Unfortunately, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly did not respond to the Armenian delegation’s request.

Armenian delegation member, Heritage parliamentary group member Tevan Poghosyan said that the 28 NATO member-states share a common feature – not offending partners.

“Unfortunately, it is not the case in the Collective Security Treaty Organization. So we should not expect any of the NATO members to wag their finger at Turkey,” he said.

However, raising the problem was important.

Syrian president declares amnesty for prisoners

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APBy ALBERT AJI and BARBARA SURK 1 hour ago
June 9, 2014 – 17:42 AMT

Syrian President Bashar Assad declared a general amnesty Monday for prisoners in the country, state media reported.

It was not clear how many — if any — prisoners would be freed after the presidential decree, issued just five days after Assad had won a third, seven-year term in office amid the 3-year-old civil war in his country.

The official SANA news agency did not say if the amnesty would apply to the tens of thousands of anti-government activists, protesters, opposition supporters and their relatives that international rights groups say are held in the country. However, SANA’s report suggested the decree would reduce prisoners’ sentences without freeing them.

The decree appears to cover at least some of those who have taken up arms against the government, including foreign fighters, according to SANA. They will not be prosecuted if they “surrender to the authorities within a month of the issuing of the decree,” the report said. Those behind taking hostages will also be pardoned, SANA said, if they “release their captives safely and without any ransom or hand (hostages) over to the authorities” within a month.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Syrian lawmaker Issam Khalil called the decree “a gift from the president after he was elected for another term.”

The amnesty includes those who participated in the armed opposition supporters, Khalil said. The government routinely refers to rebels as terrorists.

“All those who committed errors against their homeland will benefit,” Khalil said. “It will allow them to return to their normal lives.”

Syria’s pro-government Al Ikhbariya television station quoted the justice minister as saying that the presidential decree was issued in the “context of social tolerance and national unity.”

“(It comes) against the backdrop of the victories by the Syrian army,” Minister Najem al-Ahmad said.

Assad’s forces have been on the offensive in several parts of Syria over the past year, capturing villages and towns the government previously lost to rebels.

A peaceful uprising that began against Assad’s rule turned into an armed conflict and later morphed into a full-fledged civil war. More than 160,000 people have been killed.

Also Monday, activists said fighting between rival jihadi groups in an oil-rich eastern Syrian province bordering Iraq had killing at least 45 fighters in two days.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the infighting flared up in eastern Deir el-Zour province Sunday and continued into Monday, pitting al-Qaida affiliate the Nusra Front against an al-Qaida breakaway group called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The two jihadi groups were allies but had a falling out earlier this year and have since intermittently clashed in some of the fiercest rebel infighting in the 3-year-old conflict. The Observatory said a month of infighting in Dier el-Zour alone has killed nearly 300 fighters and displaced 100,000 civilians.

Surk reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Diaa Hadid in Beirut contributed to this report.

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Anna Melikian’s “Star” wins best director award at Russia’s Kinotavr

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June 9, 2014 – 18:05 AMT

Armenian filmmaker Anna Melikian’s “Star” won the best director award at the 25th Open Russian Festival Kinotavr, with the film star Severija 179687Janusauskaite scoring the best actress prize.

The film centers on a girl – a caretaker to an elderly man – who dreams of multiple surgeries to gain a model appearance and start a celebrity career.

Anna Melikian’s work as an Armenian film and TV director/ producer has been recognized with several awards. After her participation at Sundance Film Festival she was listed in the TOP 10 of most perspective film directors by Variety magazine.

Melikian studied at the All-Russian State University of Cinematography film school in Moscow (classes of prof. Sergey Solovyov and Valery Rubinchik), where she was awarded by the university prize of “Saint Anna” for Poste restante (2000).

After the graduation she was granted by GosKino Russian organization, made various documental and TV films. In 2008, Melikian’s Rusalka (2007) was awarded by the Berlin International Film Festival Prize.

Photo: Hello! Russia

Armenia MPs want to attend NATO seminar in Azerbaijan

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June 09, 2014 | 12:46

YEREVAN. – The Armenian National Assembly (NA) deputies have expressed a wish to head for the Azerbaijani capital city Baku, to participate in the 2014 Rose-Roth Seminar 213435of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

Koryun Nahapetyan, who heads the NA delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, told the aforesaid to reporters on Monday.

In his words, if security guarantees are given, the Armenian delegation stands ready to travel to Baku to attend the event.

“We have offered to hold the 2015 seminar in [Armenia’s capital city] Yerevan,” Nahapetyan added.

The NATO 2014 Rose-Roth Seminar will be convened this month. The Rose-Roth Seminars are held since 1990, and they aim to strengthen NATO partnership with the Central and Eastern European countries.

 

#NotGoingToBrazil hits Twitter as Rousseff slams ‘campaign against World Cup’

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The recent protests against this month’s FIFA World Cup have spread to Twitter with the hashtag “I am not going to Brazil because…” Brazil’s president has slammed the BpYcOvlIAAAT-KWprotest as a campaign against FIFA and her party.

“Today, there is a systematic campaign against the World Cup – or rather, it is not against the World Cup but rather a systematic campaign against us,” President Dilma Rousseff said in the southern city of Porto Alegre, AFP reported.

Rousseff said those behind the mass demonstrations are only exploiting the moment to undermine her centrist Workers Party (PT) ahead of the general elections scheduled for October 5. She did not say who is behind the campaign.

Even in the days when the likes of Pele were leading Brazil to glory, “we did not confuse the World Cup with politics,” she said.

Rousseff said that criticism toward Brazilian authorities’ spending on the World Cup was “disinformation,” saying the modernized airports and transport infrastructure will benefit Brazil in future.

#NoVoyABrasilPorque

‘Need food, not football’: Read more on Brazilian graffiti art which shows outrage over World Cup

Bpk9b2BCYAA_3lb.jpg_largeOn Thursday, the hashtag #NoVoyABrasilPorque (“I am not going to Brazil because…”) appeared on Twitter to protest the World Cup. First introduced in Colombia, it quickly went viral worldwide.

“Poverty that exists in this country demonstrates that it is not worth supporting the World Cup,” tweeted user @santiagojuva in a typical comment.

The hashtag is mostly used by people or human rights organizations in Latin America and Spain who wanted to protest treatment of the poor during preparations for the competition.

 

Bombings targeting Kurds kill at least 17 in Iraq

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SULAIMANIYAH – Agence France-Presse

                  A man inspects the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad, June 8. REUTERS Photo

n_67528_1A car bomb followed by a suicide bombing hit offices of a Kurdish political party and security forces in Iraq on June 8, killing 17 people, police and doctors said.

The blasts in the town of Jalawla, north of Baghdad, also wounded 50 people, the sources said.

A senior police official said the car bomb went off close to an office of President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party and a Kurdish asayesh security forces building. As emergency workers came to the scene, the suicide bomber entered the PUK office and detonated explosives, he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, though suicide bombings are a tactic mainly employed by Sunni Muslim militants in Iraq.

The fresh attacks come a day after a series of bombings mainly targeting Shiite-majority areas of Baghdad killed at least 24 people.

The six car bombings and one roadside bomb hit seven different areas of the Iraqi capital, also wounding more than 80 people.

Alos on June 7, clashes between security forces and militants in the northern city of Mosul killed 59 people. In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, militants took hundreds of students and staff hostage at a university, sparking an assault led by special forces to free them.

Violence is running at its highest levels since 2006-2007, when tens of thousands were killed in sectarian conflict between Iraq’s Shiite majority and Sunni Arab minority.

More than 900 people were killed last month, according to figures separately compiled by the United Nations and the government. So far this year, more than 4,300 people have been killed, according to AFP figures.

June/08/2014

Egypt’s Sisi sworn in and hails ‘historic moment’

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Abdul Fattah al-Sisi pledged to ”fully care about the interests of the people”

Egypt-PresidentEx-army chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has been sworn in as Egypt’s new president after a landslide win in May elections.

He said his election was “a democratic, peaceful handover of power” that represented “a historic moment and turning point” for the nation.

Security forces were deployed at key locations around the capital Cairo for the ceremony at the Supreme Constitutional Court.

The retired field marshal overthrew President Mohammed Morsi last July.

He has since been pursuing a crackdown on Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, which urged a boycott of the elections.

Liberal and secular activists, including the 6 April youth movement which was prominent in the 2011 revolution that ousted long-serving President Hosni Mubarak, also shunned the 26-28 May poll in protest at the curtailing of civil rights.

‘No coup’

Mr Sisi, 59, was sworn in for a four-year term at a ceremony shown live on television.

He signed the document authorising him to take over power from interim president, Adly Mansour.

Mr Sisi said: “Throughout its extended history over thousands of years, our country has never witnessed a democratic peaceful handover of power.”

He said it was time “for our great people to obtain the fruits of their two revolutions… the time has come to build a more stable future”.

Mr Sisi’s victory came almost a year after he ousted Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi, following mass protests against his rule.

At the swearing-in, the Supreme Constitutional Court deputy head, Maher Sami, said the ousting was not a coup, and that Mr Sisi had responded to the will of the people.

Justices present for the ceremony applauded after Mr Sisi took the oath.

Who is Egypt’s new president?

  •  Born in Cairo in 1954
  • Had long military career, latterly specialising mainly in military intelligence
  • Appointed army chief under Mohammed Morsi
  • Key figure in interim government after ousting Morsi in July 2013

Profile: Abdul Fattah al-Sisi

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Mr Sisi vowed he would “establish a new Egypt – a strong, just and secure country which enjoys prosperity”.

_75282320_5251bc59-2dee-4336-a4f9-1158a3f00be5In the May elections, Mr Sisi secured 96.9% of the vote and his sole challenger, left-winger Hamdeen Sabahi, received only 3.1%. Turnout was less than 50%.

Crowds are expected to flock to Cairo’s Tahrir Square to celebrate his victory, the BBC’s Orla Guerin in the Egyptian capital reports.

Mr Sisi inherits a nation that is divided and weary, our correspondent says. Experts warn that if he cannot deliver in the next year or two he could also face a mass revolt.

One student, Israa Youssef, told Reuters: “Sisi has to do something in his first 100 days, people will watch closely and there might be another revolution. That’s what people are like in this country.”

Mr Sisi faces an array of challenges, including fixing the economy, preventing further political crises and easing poverty.

More than a quarter of Egyptians live below the poverty line. Mr Sisi has pledged to build 26 new tourist resorts, eight new airports and 22 industrial estates.

He has promised to restore security in a country where attacks by Islamist militants have left hundreds of security personnel dead over the past 11 months.

The militants have stepped up attacks in response to the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, in which more than 1,400 people have been killed and 16,000 detained.

Mr Morsi and other senior leaders of the Brotherhood, which has been designated a terrorist organisation, are standing trial on a series of charges. They strongly deny any wrongdoing.