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4000 Greeks reside in Armenia

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January 03, 2013 | 12:24

YEREVAN.- The recent official reports show 1,247 Greeks are residing in Armenia. However, according to information received by Greek community, about 4,000 Greeks live in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Head of the Union of Greek NGO Arkady Mkhitarov told Armenian News-NEWS.am that three organizations are functioning in Yerevan and the rest in the regions. All the regions where Greeks reside, except of Hrazdan, have Sunday schools where children learn Greek language. The teachers participate in trainings in Greece. The textbooks are provided by the Greek government, he added.

Speaking about the Greeks’ role in political life of Armenia, Mkhitarov said there is a representative in the Armenian parliament and the community is always ready to support him.

New UN Report on Syria

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Thursday, 3. January 2013

Reported on http://www.boilingfrogspost.com

On January 2, the UN News Centerheadlined “Data suggests death toll could be more than 60,000, says UN human rights office.”

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) commissioned the analysis. It covers the March 15, 2011 – November 30, 2012 period.

It’s impossible to compile precise figures. Analysis depends on methodology and sources used. Bias corrupts findings.

UN Human Rights Council High Commissioner Navi Pillay long ago fell from grace. Like Ban Ki-moon, Kofi Annan, and Lakhdar Brahimi, she’s a reliable imperial partner.

Her previous reports on Syria expressed one-sided anti-Assad sentiment. She part of the conspiracy to replace him with a pro-Western puppet.

Whatever she reports is suspect. Credibility on Syria isn’t her long suit. She spurned her mandate. Instead of responsibly “strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights,” she defiled them in deference to Western interests.

Throughout the conflict, she pointed fingers the wrong way. She ignored Western-sponsored massacres and other atrocities. She blames Assad, not foreign death squads.

Syria is Washington’s war. It’s being ravaged and destroyed. Assad responsibly confronts invaders. He’s obligated to protect his people. He’s blamed for insurgent killings and atrocities. Pillay, like Western scoundrels, points fingers the wrong way.

“Given there has been no let-up in the conflict since the end of November, we can assume that more than 60,000 people have been killed by the beginning of 2013,” she said.

She believes 60,000 way underestimates true totals. She admits new data fall short of definitive analysis. Conflict complexities prevent accuracy.

Once peace is restored, she hopes further investigations will better reveal body count totals. Instead of blaming Washington, key NATO partners, rogue regional allies, and foreign invaders, she holds Assad accountable for doing his job responsibly.

“This massive loss of life could have been avoided if the Syrian Government had chosen to take a different path than one of ruthless suppression of what were initially peaceful and legitimate protests by unarmed civilians,” she claimed.

Millions of Syrians are displaced. Humanitarian crisis conditions exist. She partly admits insurgent responsibility. Overwhelmingly she points fingers the wrong way.

“Cities, towns and villages have been, and are continuing to be, devastated by aerial attacks, shelling, tank fire, bomb attacks and street-to-street fighting,” she said.

She blames Assad for “massive scale” killing. She ignores what most needs explaining. Conflict would stop straightaway if Washington called off its dogs.

The obvious goes unmentioned. Self-defense is called aggression. Truth is turned on its head. She blames Security Council inaction. So far, Russia and China alone prevented full-scale NATO intervention.

Libya 2.0 hasn’t happened. In early 2013, it looms. Security Council authorization will be circumvented. NATO intervened belligerently against Yugoslavia without it. Imperial powers spurn rule of law principles.

So do reliable human rights partners. Pillay practically begs for intervention. “Where is the international community,” she asks? “Why aren’t (world leaders) acting to stop this slaughter?”

Current body counts will pale compared to numbers if NATO intervenes. Hundreds of thousands could die. Multiples more could be injured and displaced. Pillay mindlessly ignores what she should deplore.

On January 2, Press TV headlined “Foreign-backed militants attack hospital in Damascus countryside,” saying:

Harasta Hospital was targeted. Casualties and damage isn’t known.

“There are also reports of fresh clashes between the two sides in some other parts of the country, including the northern city of Idlib, where the government forces confronted militants near the Taftanaz military airport.”

Insurgents attacked Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp before. On January 1, they did again. At least 10 deaths were reported. A car bomb injured many more. Foreign terrorists bear full responsibility.

“According to sources inside Yarmouk, there were also deadly clashes between members of the terrorist Free Syrian Army and the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front inside the camp. Armed men affiliated to the al-Nusra Front have reportedly killed a number of Palestinian civilians there.”

Thierry Meyssan says “reality on the ground has turned around completely.” Free Syrian Army (FSA) elements are being routed.

“The truth is that on the ground the upper hand is held by the Syrian government. The military situation has been reversed.”

French reports stopped mentioning “liberated zones.” They’re steadily shrinking. Disreputable Salafists and other Islamofacists hold fewer areas.

FSA fighters have no popular support. Extremist elements are hated. Meyssan believes strategically “the war is already over.” The fullness of time will have final say.

Meanwhile fighting rages. Dozens or hundreds die daily. On December 31, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) headlined “General Command of the Army: The Armed Forces Continue Operations Against the Terrorist Groups,” saying:

Terrorist forces are being effectively confronted.

“In Aleppo, armed terrorist groups of Jabhet al-Nusra and NATO mercenaries tried to attack an air-defense battalion in Tal Hasel in al-Sfeira using rockets, mortars and machineguns.”

“Our Armed Forces confronted them and foiled the attempt, killing and wounding large numbers of terrorists and destroying their weapons.”

Aleppo International Airport areas are being cleared. Large numbers of terrorist elements were killed or wounded. Their weapons and ammunition were seized.

“In Hama, our Armed Forces completely controlled Morek town and the international highway and dismantled more than 150 explosive devices.”

Deir B’albeh neighborhood in Homs, Daraya outside Damascus, and other areas are also controlled.

On January 2, the Free Syrian Press issued similar reports. Routing terrorists from suburban Damascus was discussed.

Voice of Russia headlined “Syrian troops chasing militants near Damascus.” Terrorist strongholds were destroyed. Dozens of foreign mercenaries were killed.

Heavy clashes continue. Syrian troops repelled insurgent invaders from Jordan. Border police seized large caches of weapons.

Some were Israeli made. Israel’s been involved in arming invaders for months.

On January 1, Mossad-connected DEBKAfile (DF) headlined “IDF and Syrian rebel officers meet clandestinely in Jordan,” saying:

Secret talks preceded “possible Israeli-US operation(s) in Syria to protect the Golan Heights.” DF cited unnamed Western intelligence reports.

They suggest “nightly clashes taking place between US, Jordanian, Israeli special forces and Syrian rebels, on the one hand, and Syrian special forces, on the other.”

They’re jockeying for control of “buffer strips.” They want “their opposite numbers (prevented) from establishing intelligence gathering posts there.”

Jordan’s military is training insurgent forces. US, UK, French, Czech, and Polish military instructors are involved.

“Extensive preparations are secretly afoot by US Special Forces, the IDF, and the Turkish and Jordanian armies.”

They’re “ready(ing) for President Bashar Assad to hand down the order to his army chiefs to launch a chemical war offensive on the military concentrations of Syrian rebels and their allies in the lands neighboring on Syria.”

Claiming it is fear-mongering propaganda. Syrian forces have no intention of using chemical or other banned weapons. Washington and Israel prioritize them.

False flag attacks may be planned. Further updates will report more.

# # # #
Stephen Lendman- BFP Contributing Author & Analyst
Stephen Lendman was born in 1934 in Boston, MA. He received a Harvard BA in 1956 and a Wharton MBA in 1960. Since 2005, Mr. Lendman has been writing on vital world and national topics, including war and peace, American imperialism, corporate dominance, political persecutions, and a range of other social, economic and political issues. He hosts The Progressive Radio News Hour on The Progressive Radio Network. Visit Mr. Lendman’s blog site here. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net

Turkey takes second spot in ECHR violation cases in 2012

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2 January 2013 / TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL ,
Turkey was the country against which the second-highest number of cases of violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was filed in 2012, an ntvmsnbc.com report said on Wednesday.

There are almost 18,000 cases currently ongoing against Turkey, making it the country against which the second-highest number of cases has been filed. Turkey follows Russia, which has nearly 30,000 cases filed against it. The cases filed against Russia last year constitute 22 percent of the total caseload of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), while the cases filed against Turkey last year constitute more than 13 percent of the ECtHR caseload. Russia and Turkey were followed by Italy, Ukraine, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Poland and the UK, respectively.

The ECtHR will announce the final figures of 2012 at the end of January.

The total number of cases filed against Turkey in 2011 was 15,950. The ECtHR announced its judgments for 174 cases against Turkey in 2011 and ruled against Turkey in 159 of them. Turkey was the country with the highest number of violations of the ECHR in 2011, the third year in a row.

The ECHR, drafted in 1950, placed Turkey under the jurisdiction of the ECtHR. In 1990 recognized the compulsory jurisdiction of the court. However, Turkey has still not ratified some of the protocols of the convention despite having signed them.

Turkey is likely to adopt a law that will establish a commission to review ongoing cases against Turkey at the ECtHR and decide whether to offer compensation to the plaintiffs in an attempt to decrease the number of cases before the court.

Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin in November explained the specifics of the proposal. He said that as of December 2011, the court had fined Turkey 2,404 times, finding it guilty of having violated a number of provisions of the ECHR since 1959, the year the country acknowledged the right of individual applicants to file cases with the European court. This makes Turkey the most frequently fined country by the European court, followed by Italy and Russia, the minister said. He said 493 of the rulings against Turkey were made due to lengthy trial periods, adding that exceeding a reasonable period in the judicial process is the main reason behind the frequency of the rulings against Turkey.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev Named Most Corrupt ‘Person of the Year’ (OCCRP)

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BUCHAREST—Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has won the first ever Organized Crime and Corruption Person of the Year bestowed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

The award is given for the person who figured prominently in 2012 on stories on crime and corruption in its coverage area.  Aliyev was chosen because of new revelations this year about how his family had taken large shares in lucrative industries including the telecom, minerals and construction industries often through government related deals.

The award is chosen by 60 reporters and 15 news organizations that make up the OCCRP consortium. Runners-up included Albanian drug lord Naser Kelmendi, President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“2012 was a banner year for those of us who cover organized crime and corruption,” said OCCRP editor Drew Sullivan. “It’s a growth industry around the world and we expect a lot of work next year as well.”

OCCRP, based in Sarajevo and Bucharest, is a non-profit, consortium of independent investigative centers, media outlets and investigative journalists from 20 countries.  Its purpose is to educate readers worldwide on how organized crime and corruption works. Click here to read the full report (OCCRP).

Coordinated efforts will help to achieve de jure recognition of Karabakh – Prosperous Armenia

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January 03, 2013 | 13:36

YEREVAN. – Positive momentum was registered in the settlement of Karabakh conflict in 2012 in terms of work with international community, secretary of Prosperous Armenia parliamentary group Naira Zohrabyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

She said views on prevailing of people’s right to self-determination are becoming dominant worldwide.

“Previously, it was difficult for members of the Armenian delegation to the European agencies to justify that the right of peoples to self-determination is the prevailing norm fixed in the UN Charter, over the past year, there is a tendency that no one tries to dispute it,” she said.

Zohrabyan noted there is much to be done, given the enormous financial resources spent by Azerbaijan to distort the essence of the Karabakh issue.

“It is important to act so that the European countries change their perception of issues on the right to self-determination. Even those European Parliament members, who had received petrodollars from Azerbaijan, refrain from speaking on the issue of the right of peoples to self-determination. Armenia has no oil revenues but the truth is on our side, and we have to achieve justice through coordinated efforts for de-facto independent Karabakh to be recognized de jure,” Zohrabyan emphasized.

Kurdish Youth Festival, January 4,5,6 San Diego CA.

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I encourage all Armenian youth to attend the Kurdish youth festival, it is a great place to get accounted and understand the Kurdish culture..

Wally Sarkeesian

For the fourth year in a row, the Kurdish Youth Festival is bringing together a diverse group of people from all over the United States for a three-day long event filled with culture, education, and social activities. Of course, it would not be a Kurdish festival without a big party to practice your helperke skills!

What’s new this year?
We will have a dance workshop, so you are guaranteed to be able to dance to whatever music is playing, and a much more elaborate Kurdish Trivia Game! If you like the more cerebral aspects of the festival, we are excited to tell you there will be plenty of brain candy to go around. This year, we will have round-table discussion in topics ranging from Kurdish women’s social challenges in the US, the message and effects of Miss Kurdistan, and the status of the so called “Kurdish-American leadership and the Kurdish vote”.

While you count down the days, check back from time to time to see the updated list of the marvelous program we are putting together. We really hope to see you there, so please take the time to register in order for us to best accommodate you (psssst, you will get a bonus for advanced registration!). So come over, make new friends, absorb the culture, and have a blast!

http://kurdishyouthfestival.org/

 

UC Irvine SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES ARMENIAN STUDIES 2013 COMMUNITY LECTURE SERIES JANUARY 17th

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RUBINA PEROOMIAN,

Associate Researcher, Department of near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA

At UC Irvine SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES January 17, 2013

ARMENIAN STUDIES 2013 COMMUNITY LECTURE SERIES

“The Armenian Genocide in Literature, Perceptions of Those who Lived Through the Years of Calamity”

“Armenia, Armenians, and the New World History”

“Reflections on Early Modern Global Armenian Print, 1512-1800”

“The Armenian Genocide in Literature, Perceptions of Those who Lived Through the Years of Calamity

LECTURE DATES TBA:

Peter Cowe and Richard Hovannisian

ALL LECTURES WILL BE AT 6:30 PM IN HUMANITIES GATEWAY 1010 UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | FOR MORE INFORMATION EMAIL MHKANDA@UCI.EDU

Armenian History at UC Irvine, Looking Ahead to 2013 Established in 2007, Armenian History at the University of California, Irvine offers undergraduate courses in ancient and modern Armenian history. The program also sponsors quarterly public lectures aimed at bringing the history and cultural topics surrounding modern day Armenia to the broader Orange County community. On December 16th, founding supporters of Armenian History, Dr. Garo Tertzakian and Mrs. Sylvie Tertzakian, hosted their annual fundraiser for Armenian History and raised over $20,000 to support continued course offerings within the Humanities. This marks the fifth year Armenians from the Orange County community gathered to raise funds in support of the growth of Armenian history at UCI. Also made possible through generous gifts to the program, the 2012 Armenian History Lecture Series, included lectures by Richard Hovannisian on “The Changing Landscape of Historic Western Armenia: Reflections on a Journey into the Past,” Talinn Grigor on “Dolling-up Yerevan Avant-garde Urbanism in Post-Soviet American Politics,” Houri Berberian on “Connected Revolutions: Armenians and the Russian, Ottoman and Iranian Revolutions of the Early Twentieth Century,” and “The Karabakh Conflict From Ceasefire to Safarov” with Levon Marashlian. This year’s course offerings in ancient and modern Armenian history continued to see strong student enrollments and the winter 2013 offering in Modern Armenian History should be no exception. Celebrated Armenian historian and professor emeritus of Armenian and Near Eastern History at UCLA, Richard Hovannisian, will join the faculty as a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer. Professor Hovannisian shared that he is “excited to witness Armenian studies developing at UCI and I am pleased and honored to be a part of that process and to have the opportunity to interact with students and faculty on the Irvine campus.” On January 17, 2013, the Armenian History Lecture Series kicks off with “The Armenian Genocide in Literature, Perceptions of those who Lived through the Years of Calamity” with Rubina Peroomian. Peroomian is an associate researcher at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA. She has been a lecturer of Armenian language, literature and history and the Armenian Question at UCLA, University of Laverne, and Glendale College. Armenian History will also welcome a lecture by S. Peter Cowe, professor of Armenian language and culture at UCLA, in early 2013; and Giusto Traina, professor of Roman history at the Paris-Sorbonne University, will lecture on “Tigran the Great, King of Kings” on May 28, 2013. Traina is currently involved in long-term research about ancient Armenia.

 

Media contact:

Emily Stone

Humanities Development Office, UC Irvine

eestone@uci.edu

(949)824-1605

BDP claims PM Erdoğan ordered Uludere air raid

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ISTANBUL

A botched raid by the Turkish Air Forces last year in Uludere was ordered by Prime Minister Erdoğan, BDP co-leader Demirtaş says on the first anniversary

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered the Turkish Air Force to strike 34 people in Uludere last year based on intelligence that there was a high-profile Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant among the group, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has said on the first anniversary of the killings.

“It was said that there was a high-profile PKK member among the group but information about civilians was also given to the prime minister,” Demirtaş said in a speech he delivered to thousands of people gathered for a commemoration in the southeastern province of Şırnak’s Uludere district Dec 28.
Demirtaş called on Erdoğan to “confess that it was he who gave the bombing order.”

Some 34 civilian Kurdish villagers were killed in an air strike on Dec. 28, 2011, when they were allegedly mistaken for PKK militants as they smuggled oil from northern Iraq into Turkey.

Main opposition furious

A sub-commission of Parliament’s Human Rights Inquiry Commission was set up to investigate the air-strike, however it has failed to publish its much-anticipated findings, which some members claim is due to a lack of cooperation from government agencies and military branches.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) harshly criticized the government over the issue and called on the resignation of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) MPs from Uludere-related commissions.

CHP’s Ankara deputy Levent Gök, also a member of the sub-commission, said “The Uludere incident has taken the AKP hostage and sub-commission members of the AKP have lost all their credibility,” at a press conference in Ankara Dec. 28.

CHP’s Gök said the AKP and the General Staff were trying to forget the Uludere incident, to black it out and cool it down.

“Remarks by a person that I assumed as an addressee two hours ago are being denied two hours later, they are politically destroying each other,” Gök said, announcing that the CHP will issue its own report soon.

The sub-commission was formed in January 2012 to examine the incident, request information and documents from the General Staff, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the ministries of defense, interior and justice, while also conducting visits to the region.

At about the same time in Uludere, pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies marched with thousands in protests. Sebahat Tuncel, an Istanbul deputy, said nearly 5, 000 people attended marches.

“The parliamentary sub-commission’s report does not reflect the truth. The massacre could not be hidden, so they found a scapegoat. The state has played a significant role in every massacre in Turkey like Maraş, Sivas,” Tuncel told the Hürriyet Daily news in a phone interview yesterday.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch has also called on the Turkish government to launch “an effective and transparent inquiry” into the attack.

British MP Helen Goodman: Media workers are persistently defamed and persecuted in Azerbaijan

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TheyWorkForYou.com website has published an article on Azerbaijan by British MP Helen Goodman. We present it completely.

At the beginning of November, I went to Baku to attend the UN internet governance forum, and I was taken there by Nominet—I wish to put on record my thanks for its generosity.

It might seem strange for the United Nations to hold an internet governance forum in Azerbaijan. The internet is one of the most free means of communication—it was instrumental in facilitating recent political uprisings during the Arab spring—but unfortunately the same cannot be said in Azerbaijan. Before discussing the human rights situation, I wish to take a moment to describe this country on the Caspian. It is a very beautiful, wild and mountainous country in the Caucasus. At no point in its history has Azerbaijan been a liberal democracy, so unfortunately it has no such traditions to recover. From 1805 to 1991, it was part of the Russian empire, latterly of course in the Soviet Union. In fact, it was in Baku that the Tsars imprisoned Stalin. In the last 20 years, the country has prioritised rapid economic development, based on its substantial oil and gas reserves. It is, I am afraid to say, the spiritual home of the 4×4, and it has an unresolved conflict with its neighbour, Armenia.

That context may explain the human rights situation in Azerbaijan, but it certainly does not excuse it. This year, Azerbaijan has played host to two major international events. The first, as many people are aware, was the Eurovision song contest. The second was the UN internet governance forum that I attended. Those two events should have been an opportunity for Azerbaijan to step forward and open up. Unfortunately, the opposite seems to have happened, with the authorities clamping down even more aggressively on journalists and critics of the regime.

At the moment, Baku is plastered with huge posters of President Aliyev, whose father—incidentally—was also president. Most people, when they have photographs taken for political purposes, choose ones that are flattering. Unfortunately, I found President Aliyev’s 6-foot-wide grin more of a crocodile smile.

The petty reality of life in an autocracy was brought home to me on the first morning when all the traffic on the motorway was held up for 20 minutes to allow the official motorcade to pass through, but the problems are far more serious than that. One might expect a Government who are trying to impress the rest of the world to be on their best behaviour, but while I was there the authorities continued to jam the BBC television channel.

While I was there, the authorities continued to jam the BBC television channel and they held the trial of Avaz Zeynalli, who was accused of criticising the regime. The evidence was claimed to have been videoed, but neither the defendant nor his lawyer were shown the film. Finally, they hacked into the computer of Neelie Kroes’s staff while she attended the conference.

There is a long history of violence against journalists in Azerbaijan, which is documented by the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, an Azeri non-governmental organisation. According to the institute, in 2005, Elmar Huseynov, the editor of Monitor, was gunned down in Baku. In 2011, Rafiq Tagi, a critic of Iran and the impact of Islam on Azerbaijan, was stabbed and subsequently died. The level of intolerance is well illustrated by the case of Agil Khalil, who was assaulted and stabbed after investigating reports of trees being burned in an olive grove. In April this year, Idrak Abbasov was attacked by employees of the state oil company of Azerbaijan while filming the destruction of residential properties near an oil field outside Baku. He was beaten unconscious and was in hospital for a month. It is thought that he may have been targeted for exposing human rights abuses in the run-up to the Eurovision song contest. In fact, three weeks previously, he had received The Guardian journalism award at the Index on Censorship freedom of expression awards here in London. There is then the case of Khadija Ismayilova, who I met at the IGF. She had previously worked for Radio Free Europe. Her flat was bugged and a sex video of her, which was filmed secretly, was posted on the internet.

Amnesty International has asked, in particular, that I raise the case of Mehmen Hoseynov, who is facing five years in prison. He is accused of hooliganism for filming a protest on 21 May. Will the Minister raise his case with the Government of Azerbaijan and call for all charges against him to be dropped immediately and unconditionally? Index on Censorship is also concerned about the cases of Minas Sargsyan, Hilal Mamedov, Anar Bayramli, Jamal Ali and Faramaz Novruzoglu. I have e-mailed the Minister with the details of their cases, rather than detaining the House with the long stories attached to them, so that his office can look into them.

Those cases are not isolated incidents; they are part of a systematic repression of free speech in Azerbaijan. In Azerbaijan, defamation is a criminal offence. Media workers are persistently defamed and persecuted. Azerbaijan is the top jailer of journalists in Europe and Central Asia. Index on Censorship estimates that there are currently 70 political prisoners in Azerbaijani jails. Freedom of expression, assembly and association are limited.

Ancient Armenian coins discovered in Turkey

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December 26, 2012 | 14:46

The police at Turkey’s Kastamonu Province found numerous objects of historical value.

Based on a call that was received, the law enforcement officers stopped a vehicle that was entering Kastamonu city. Upon searching the vehicle, the police discovered 424 pieces of historically significant objects, jewelry, and coins plus two illegal guns, Haberler news agency of Turkey reports.

Also, there were three pieces of ancient Armenian coins among the objects that were discovered.

“In actual fact, at least the criminals do not deny that Armenians have lived in these lands,” Istanbul Armenian journalist Aris Nalci wrote in his Twitter account in this connection.