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Deputy speaker urges Turkey against interfering in Karabakh settlement

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July 17, 2013 – 17:54 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Deputy speaker of Armenian parliament commented on recent statement of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu suggesting Ankara will always 165893be supporting Azerbaijan and is ready to promote peaceful settlement of Karabakh conflict.

“Davutglu’s statement confirms Turkey’s adherence to pro-Azeri solution of Karabakh conflict, rather than a fair one,” Eduard Sharmazanov said.

“If really interested in a rapid solution of the conflict, Turkey has to take one simple step – stop interfering in the settlement process,” the deputy speaker said.

RT: ‘Heroic effort at great personal cost’: Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

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A Swedish sociology professor has nominated Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize. He says the NSA whistleblower could help “save the prize from the disrepute incurred by the hastsnowden-nominated-nobel-peace---_siy and ill-conceived decision” to give the 2009 award to Barack Obama.

In his letter addressed to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Stefan Svallfors praised Snowden for his “heroic effort at great personal cost.” He stated that by revealing the existence and the scale of the US surveillance programs, Snowden showed “individuals can stand up for fundamental rights and freedoms.”

 

 

Syria university strips Turkish PM of PhD

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DAMASCUS (AFP) –  Syria’s Aleppo University has stripped Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of an honorary doctorate citing his support for Syrian rebels and photo_1373977278008-1-HDcrackdown on Turkish protesters, state media reported Tuesday.

State news agency SANA said Erdogan was being stripped of the PhD because of “his plots against the Syrian people” and his use of “arbitrary” violence against protesters in Turkey.

SANA quoted Khudur Orfaly, dean of Aleppo University, as describing the decision as “a message of solidarity to the friendly Turkish people, who reject Erdogan’s hostile policies”.

Relations between Syria and Turkey have deteriorated sharply since the uprising broke out against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule in March 2011 and Erdogan became one of Assad’s most outspoken critics.

Turkey is now home to more than 400,000 Syria refugees and harbours many of the opposition’s top civilian and military leaders.

At home, Erdogan has faced a wave of protests since June demanding his resignation.

Human rights groups have accused Turkish police of using excessive force against the demonstrators, and Syrian state television has frequently aired footage of Turkish security forces putting down the protests.

Syria’s state media does not acknowledge the existence of any popular anti-Assad movement, instead blaming the violence on foreign-backed “terrorists”.

 

Egypt voices ‘strong resentment’ at Turkey’s Morsi support

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CAIRO, Qahirah – Agence France-Presse

Egypt’s interim government voiced “strong resentment” on Tuesday at comments by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan backing ousted Islamist president n_50822_4Mohamed Morsi.

The foreign ministry expressed “strong resentment at comments like these, which… represent a clear intervention in internal Egyptian affairs,” its spokesman Badr Abdelatty said.

Erdoğan said on Sunday that democratically-elected Morsi, who was ousted in a popularly-backed military coup on July 3, was Egypt’s only legitimate president.
“Currently, my president in Egypt is Morsi because he was elected by the people,” Erdoğan, who like Morsi hails from an Islamist party, said in an interview with a Turkish newspaper.
Abdelatty called on Turkish officials to put “the historic relationship and shared interests” of their two countries above any “narrow party interests”.

A spokesman for Egypt’s interim president also criticised the Turkish leader’s remarks, calling them “inappropriate” and an “intervention” in Egypt’s domestic affairs.

“It is down to Ankara to respect the will of the Egyptian people who went out on June 30,” Ahmed al-Muslimani said in comments reported by Egyptian daily Al-Ahram’s website.

Turkish police detain 30 over Gezi protests in pre-dawn raids

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16 July 2013 /TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL

The İstanbul police department’s counterterrorism unit and special operations team raided over 100 locations early on Tuesday, detaining at least 30 people suspected of provoking protests linked to Gezi Park near İstanbul’s Taksim Square.

The places that were raided in İstanbul’s various districts include several student dormitories. Those detained are suspected of organizing protests and being involved in violence in the course of the protests. The detainees were brought to the İstanbul Police Department, following medical examinations. The raids were continuing when Today’s Zaman went to print and the number of detainees may rise.

Within the operation, a house in Fatih district, where reportedly neo-nationalist Turkish Youth Union (TGB) members stay, was searched for two hours by the police, who seized two sacks of documents. Olgu Özdemir, chairman of the TGB İstanbul branch, and some other members of the TGB were among the detainees.

Meral Danış Bektaş, the Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDP) deputy leader who is responsible for law and human rights, issued a press statement condemning the morning raids and detentions, saying, “It is inexplicable that students and political party members were detained in a witch hunt by the government, while criminals who attack protesters with machetes and bats were released pending trial.”

In İzmir, a court decided to arrest 11 suspects on charges of being members of terrorist organizations, being involved in violence that damaged public buildings, vehicles and businesses and provoking people.

The arrests came after police earlier detained 15 suspects in raids at 16 locations in four western provinces — İzmir, Balıkesir, Manisa and Bursa. Two suspects were set free by prosecutors after those detained were referred to court. Another two suspects were released pending trial out of the 13 suspects who were referred to court. The rest were arrested.Forty-eight people have been arrested out of 57 detainees in four raids in İzmir since the protests started in late May.

On Monday night a large group gathered in Gündoğdu Square in İzmir in order to break their fasts — on the seventh day of Muslim holy month of Ramadan — on the ground, sharing the food they brought and protested the police brutality resulting in deaths and injuries.

Twelve people who were among the 50 protesters detained on the opening day of Gezi Park on July 8 but later released pending trial, face arrest once again, following the appeal by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday. Mücella Yapıcı, secretary-general of the İstanbul branch of the Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects’ Chambers (TMMOB) and member of Taksim Solidarity, is among them.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) issued a memorandum stating that so far 133 people have been arrested and 3,636 people detained related to the Gezi Park protests.

With respect to the brutal beating of 19-year-old university student Ali İsmail Korkmaz by a group during the Gezi protests in Eskişehir resulting in his death on July 10, the suspect S.K. was released pending trial on Tuesday with a ban on leaving the country, after he was detained on Monday.

Thirty-three-year-old bus driver S.K. who was identified from security camera footage taken in the area of Korkmaz’s beating, reportedly has a criminal record of violating the firearms law by firing a gun. S.K. denied the charges but said he had a dispute with a group throwing stones and he was intoxicated that night. He replied to the reporters’ question, “Did you kill Ali İsmail Korkmaz?” with the answer, “No.”

In a statement issued by the Eskişehir Chief Prosecutor’s Office, it is said that two more people linked to the incident are being sought.

Korkmaz suffered a brain hemorrhage after being beaten with baseball bats by men in street clothes as he fled police during a demonstration in support of the Gezi Park protests in Eskişehir. He fought for his life for 38 days at a hospital before succumbing to his injuries. The attack on Korkmaz has stoked the tensions that erupted late in May over a government plan to demolish İstanbul’s Gezi Park in Taksim Square and replace it with a replica of an Ottoman-era barracks.

In Korkmaz’s hometown of Hatay the atmosphere was calm on Monday after five days of protests following his death. There was a peaceful sit-in with slogans being shouted regarding Korkmaz and Abdullah Cömert – the 22-year-old victim of police violence on June 3 in Hatay. The protest was carried out without any police intervention for the first time in five days.

Another protester, Mustafa Ali Tombul, who has been in a coma since being critically injured when a gas canister was fired at his head by the police on June 8 at the opening of Gezi Park, is showing signs of improvement, according to a statement made by his family outside Taksim İlkyardım Hospital. Mehmet Tombul, father of the 17-year-old, thanked everyone for their prayers. He added that they are determined to win their legal battle.

Armenian minister of diaspora hosts Thessaloniki mayor

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Armenian Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan received on Tuesday a delegation led by Mayor of Thessaloniki Yiannis Boutaris.

g_image-8Mr Boutaris has arrived in Armenia to establish closer ties with Armenia’s second largest city and Thessaloniki’s sister-city Gyumri. The Thessaloniki authorities plan to invite 250 to 300 Armenian youths to Thessaloniki to take part in different events and establish contacts with their peers.

“I am happy that your programs are focused on young people because they are our future. Our peoples’ friendship has centuries-old history, and we must jointly cope with the challenges. We have great potential to develop economic, education, cultural and tourist ties,” Minister Hakobyan said.

In his turn, Mr Boutaris pointed out the Armenian community’s important role in Thessaloniki’s life. Armenians are clever and hard-working people, he said.

In conclusion the sides exchanged souvenir.

Merkel says US must ‘observe German law on German territory’

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Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has called for a strict European agreement on data protection requiring all internet service providers to reveal what personal information they have stored, and to whom they have made it available, Financial Times reported.

g_image-Markel NSAThe fundamental law should ensure that companies such as Facebook and Google would be subject to the same strict privacy rules in all EU member states, and not simply obey national legislation in the country where they are registered, she said.

Ms Merkel has faced sharp criticism in recent days for failing to take decisive action to protect German internet users from the comprehensive surveillance of internet and telecommunications traffic alleged to have been conducted by US and British intelligence services.

“Internet companies which are operating in Europe, such as Facebook and Google, must give . . . European countries the information about whom they have given data to,” she said.

The first requirement was to complete negotiations on a common European data protection law, on which Germany would take “a very strict position”. She said that although Germany had its own “very good data protection law”, a company like Facebook which was registered in Ireland was only subject to Irish law.

Other European countries, such as the UK, had “a very different philosophy” about data protection, and very different laws granting intelligence services access to communications traffic. “We must have an intensive discussion to discover what is reasonable,” she said. The German position would be that “the end does not always justify the means” in collecting intelligence information.

In the clearest indication to date that Ms Merkel believes the US may have contravened Germany’s data protection laws, she said: “I expect a clear promise from the American government, that in the future they will observe German law on German territory. We are friendly partners. We are in a defence alliance and we must be able to rely on each other.”

Genocide Was Prelude to the Holocaust, Israeli Historian Says

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Yerevan—Israeli writer Yair Auron and ex-parliamentarian Yair Tzaban have arrived in Armenia at the invitation of the Union of Writers of Armenia. In his book titled Banality of Indifference, the Israeli historian speaks about the Armenian Genocide for the first time in the history of Israel. The book says the Genocide of the Armenians was Israeli-1-620x300the prelude to the Holocaust. Genocide studies expert Auron expresses his dismay at the behavior of the Israeli authorities. According to him, it is not acceptable to speak about one’s own tragedy and forget the similar pain of other nations. Zori Balayan has written the introduction to the book. The Armenian publication of the book has been released thanks to Moscow-based businessman Karen Baghdasaryan.

“By failing to recognize the genocides inflicted on other nations, we demean the Holocaust. We are obliged to respect the memories of other peoples and must discuss the Armenian Genocide on the parliamentary level,” Yair Auron told a press conference in Yerevan.

Using archived materials, the author of the book analyzes the attitudes of the Jewish community of Palestine and the leaders of the Zionist movement towards the Armenian Genocide at the turn of the last century.

“With this book I expressed my protest against the official stance of Israel, which is unacceptable,” the author said.

Auron said, however, that there have been changes in Israeli diplomacy. “The Israeli Knesset has been discussing the Armenian Genocide issue for the eighth year in a row, and this is a great achievement, as the issue had never been put on the agenda before,” he added.

The historian said the behavior of the Israeli government is immoral. “Israel has no right to deny the Armenian Genocide because of its past,” Auron said.

Ex-member of the Knesset, Yair Tzaban, underlined, in turn, that Israel does not recognize the Armenian Genocide because of diplomatic considerations regarding Turkey; considerations which are in pursuit of military and economic interests.

“For twenty-four years now I have been struggling for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. I was the first minister to visit the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem and participate in the events dedicated to the Armenian Genocide,” Yair Tzaban said.

Turkey competes with Armenia in apricot business – research

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July 16, 2013 | 15:17

YEREVAN. – Turkey and Iran export dozens of times more apricots than Armenia, stated consulting service analyst Artashes Shaboyan, during a press conference on Tuesday.

162729He presented the results of a research entitled: “The Development Trends for Industrial Agriculture in Armenia.”

In addition, as per Shaboyan, the apricot harvest in Armenia is substantially lower than the harvest in Turkey.

Shaboyan informed that horticulture has the greatest potential for development in Armenia’s agriculture, as an average annual growth of 20 percent was recorded in the past ten years. Specifically, the vineyards and the fruit and berry plantations are increasing in the country.

Armenia registered an increase in apricot, cherry, peach, and Cornus mas exports. A total of 12,000 tons of fruit were exported from Armenia in 2012, against the 8,000 tons in 2008.

Also, the grape harvest is relatively high in Armenia, with 15.9 tons per hectare, as compared to the other countries in the region.

Air Arabia Airline announces launch of flights to Armenia

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July 16, 2013 – 16:04 AMT

Air Arabia Airline announced the launch of flights to Armenia at a Tuesday, July 16 news conference.

165772Air Arabia Head of Corporate Clients and Costumer Relations Department HusamRaidan and the Airline’s Regional Director of RF, CIS and Europe Ravindran Bharatan spoke at the event.

The speakers briefed those present on the frequency and dates of flights, possible routes and pricing policy implemented by the Airline. The importance of entry into the new market, as well as the specifics of the offer were discussed.

The flights shall depart from Sharjah International Airport on Tuesdays and Fridays at 08.30 am arriving at Zvartnots International Airport at 11.15 am. Return flights shall depart on the same days, leaving Yerevan at 12.35 pm and arriving in Sharjah at 03.40 pm (local time).

From August 16-30, 2013 the tickets for Yerevan-Sharjah-Yerevan flights will cost $175, with a 30% discount as a special surprise for the media representatives in case of professional identification document available.

The speakers also conveyed the message from Adel Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer, Air Arabia:

“We recognize Armenia as an appealing destination favorable to both tourists and business men internationally. Strategically located, Yerevan is a cultural melting pot and brings together the world’s most diverse ethnicities,” says Adel Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer, Air Arabia. “Yerevan compliments Air Arabia’s extensive Eastern European network and offers Armenians convenient connections across the Indian Subcontinent, Middle East and Levant region.”

Air Arabia (PJSC), listed on the Dubai Financial Market, is the Middle East and North Africa’s leading low-cost carrier. Air Arabia commenced operations in October 2003.