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Armenians believe in the rising, not the suffering. Huffington Post

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16:15, 28 September, 2012

SEPTEMBER 28,  Huffington Post dwelled on Armenia and its reach history, reports Armenpress . Armenia is a mystical place   filled with monasteries, pagan temples, prayer stones and churches, most tucked away in wildly remote places to protect them from destruction. (It didn’t.) These pockmarked Christian monuments are the pride of Armenia as well as testament to a seemingly endless parade of invaders: conquering Persians, rampaging Mongols, invading Turks, totalitarian Soviets, as well as the ravages of devastating earthquakes. For over 600 years, Armenians knew themselves to be a distinct people and yet were not a sovereign country. Faced with hostility from all sides, Armenians held fast to their identity and managed to survive into the modern era with a faith as deep and constant as the obsidian stone that is part of this beautiful landscape. Although the Kardashians are undoubtedly the world’s most famous Armenians, they are not typical of the Armenian character (sorry, Kim) , although I did see an awful lot of beautiful women in the modern capital of Yerevan. Actually, it’s a bit hard to get a firm grasp on the Armenian character because it’s full of such deep contradictions. Armenians are enormously proud, highly educated (with a literacy rate of almost 100 percent), and hospitable beyond your wildest expectations. In centuries of life along the Silk Route, Armenians became known for their business savvy in commerce and trade, and they interacted easily with almost every European and Asian culture. But Armenia’s psyche is indelibly haunted by the memory of great loss (1.5 million annihilated in 1915 alone) and like all the Caucasus’s states, the people have experienced centuries of brutal conflict that staggers the imagination and continues today in the convoluted conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabagh. Armenia was a part of the Soviet Socialist Republics for more than 70 years, and has only been independent for 21 years. Armenia’s economy was far more robust and productive under Soviet rule, and the country is still struggling to establish a modern economy with almost no natural resources (and with its two borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan closed). While the capital of Yerevan is bustling, elegant and thriving, in the countryside there is little besides subsistence farming to support the villagers and the poverty rate approaches 35 percent. Many men still immigrate to take jobs in neighboring countries; in fact, three times as many Armenians now live outside the country as inhabit it. That’s why  Heifer  is investing $3.7 million in projects to help the smallholder farmer in Armenia achieve economic independence and food security — and what I came to see. Despite the economic challenges, Armenia is hardly depressing. For one thing, the country is beautiful. The food is incredible, and though the people are tough (they’ve had to be) they are also joyful, sweet people who love to garden, to eat, to talk and to welcome visitors, particularly if you’re one of the 8 million diaspora Armenians who’s coming back home. Even their blooming Christian cross never features the crucified Christ, because Armenians believe in the rising,  not the suffering.

Armenia to have own satellite

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September 28, 2012 | 19:47

YEREVAN. – Armenian Minister of Transportation and Communication Gagik Beglaryan has recently visited Russia on working visit and met with the head of the Russian Roskosmos space agency Vladimir Popovkin.

The sides discussed issues of creating and deploying cosmic satellite for Armenia’s communication system, as well as operation of jointly owned geostationary orbit 71.4 E position in the space.

Armenia has launched the program on creation of space apparatus for the country, as well as the deployment of the geostationary communication satellite in the 71.4 E orbit position, ministerial press service reports. As a result, Armenia will for the first time have its own communication satellite operating in the space. It will help to the development and perfection of Armenia’s security, science and communication technologies.

U.S. Senator urges immediate re-incarceration of Azeri ax-murderer

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California Senator Barbara Boxer(D-CA) has expressed her outrage over Azerbaijan’s pardon, promotion and praise for convicted axe-murderer Ramil Safarov, and called for his immediate re-incarceration, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

In a strongly worded letter to President Aliyev, Senator Boxer stressed that Safarov’s release is “deeply disturbing and provocative action has only served to inflame tensions and endanger efforts to forge a lasting peace in the Caucasus.” Calling the Safarov’s pardon a “blatant disregard for the rule of law,” she went on to demand that Aliyev “adhere to the standards of the international law by returning Safarov to jail, where he belongs, for the heinous crime that he committed.”

Last week, during the Center for European Policy Analysis’ U.S.-Central Europe Strategy Forum, Assistant Secretary of State Phil Gordon told RFE/RL that the State Department continues “to express our dismay and disappointment. We’re not satisfied with what has happened here. In our view this is someone who should have continued to serve out his sentence and certainly we were appalled by the glorification that we heard in some corridors of somebody who was convicted of murder, and so no, we’re not satisfied with the responses.”

Azerbaijani ex-president Heydar Aliyev statue dismantled in Canada

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September 26, 2012 – 20:36 AMT

Administration of Canadian town of Niagara-on-the-Lake dismantled the statues of Azerbaijani ex-president Heydar Aliyev and his daughter-in-law Mehriban Aliyeva, considering them as monuments to dictators, member of Public Chamber of Canadian representation Hasan Saftarov said.

The step was taken by the town administration in response to Azerbaijani opposition’s campaign.

“With the whole world having declared war against dictatorship, a statue to Heydar Aliyev undermines the image of Canada, as one of the most democratic countries in the world.

“Aliyev is no different from Saddam, Mubarak, Ben Ali, Gaddafi and Assad. For this reason, we request to dismantle and return statues of Heydar Aliyev and his daughter-in-law Mehriban Aliyeva to Azerbaijani authorities,” Azeri opposition’s letter to the mayor’s office reads.

According to the official response by the mayor’s office addressed to Hasan Saftarov, the statues were removed, with the monument to Heydar Aliyev to be restored in case Canadian government and Azerbaijani embassy reached an agreement, Internet gazeta reported.

Hurriyet: Come back, Diyarbakır mayor tells Armenians

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The mayor of Diyarbakir Metropolitan Municipality has invited all Armenians (and other non-Muslim peoples) whose ancestors were born in the southeastern province before being forced to flee during the 1915 events to return to the city, Hurriyet writes.

“An Armenian, an Assyrian and a Chaldean, whose grandfathers or great-grandfathers were born in Diyarbakır, have the same right to live in Diyarbakır as I have, as a Kurdish person who was born in Diyarbakır. Come back to your city,” Osman Baydemir told Turkish and Armenian journalists on Sept. 25 on the sidelines of a roundtable conference called “Expanding the Scope of Dialogue: Media and Armenia-Turkey Relations at the Current Stage” that was organized by the Yerevan Press Club in Diyarbakır.

According to “Talat Paşa’s Black Book,” written by the historian Murat Bardakçı, there were 56,166 Armenians living in Diyarbakır before the events of 1915. Baydemir also said “he curses the cruelty of 1915 within his conscience.” “We refuse the legacy of our grandfathers, who took part in this massacre [the events of 1915], we refuse to be a part of what they lived, and we commemorate those of our grandfathers who were opposed to this massacre and cruelty,” said Baydemir, who is from the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which is focused on the Kurdish issue.

Many researchers have said the ruling Party of Union and Progress during the Ottoman Empire used Kurdish militias known as the “Hamidiye troops” against the Armenians in the events of 1915.

“Denying the crimes that were committed by some of our grandfathers would be the same as becoming a part of [those crimes]. We first have to accept the sufferings of the people in order to be able to heal the wounds,” the mayor said.

Baydemir said one of his biggest dreams was to construct a common monument in memory of all of those who were lost in the region, including Armenians, Turks, Kurds, Assyrians and Chaldeans up until the 1930s. “I would like to visit this monument with Turks, Armenians and Kurds all together and cry for our lost ones all together. Turks, Kurds, Persians, Arabs – we all have to succeed in negotiation and dialogue in order to be able to live with each other.”

Armenia says damage caused by Azerbaijan ‘beyond measure’

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The damage caused to Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia by Azerbaijan cannot be measured with any numbers, said Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan reacting to reports from Baku that put the cost of the ‘Armenian occupation’ at hundreds of billions of dollars.

“In response to the implementation by the people of Nagorno-Karabakh of their right to self-determination Azerbaijan committed massacres and ethnic cleansings against the Armenian population. It unleashed a large-scale aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh which led to victims, destruction of settlements, infrastructure and occupation of territories,” the Armenian official told the state-run news agency Armenpress.

“And today, by proclaiming an axe-murderer a hero and refusing to withdraw snipers, create mechanisms for investigating border incidents and strengthen the ceasefire regime, the Azerbaijani government is responsible for the loss of life regardless of what ethnicity the victims are. The machinations of numbers, international laws and distorted regional history will not help the Azerbaijani government to avoid responsibility,” concluded Kocharyan.

Armenian General Benevolent Union provided Syrian Armenians with 1 million dollars

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18:04, 27 September, 2012

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS: Armenian General Benevolent Union provided financial and other material support to Syrian Armenians living in Armenia. This was announced by AGBU Central Administrative Assembly member Vazgen Eakobian during the conference on September 27. Union has allocated 1 million dollars for aid to Syrian Armenians. Afterwards the union  called on the Diaspora for immediate help for Syrian Armenians.

“Thousands of families are provided with food, medicine, water and other necessary supplies. Our centers in Armenia serve as a shelter as well” reports Armenpress citing Vazgen Eakobian. One part of Syrian Armenians who has settled in the center of Yerevan they do not need help and do not get AGBU’s support, however, there are indeed needy, who have lost everything and have faced serious problems.

“The sum is to be divided between Syria and Armenia. Even those who left for Lebanon and don’t have any money to pay for their children’s education in Armenian schools will be provided with the support” added Eakobian.

Azerbaijani dictator is constantly rattling his sword and threatening his peace-loving neighbor: Fresno Bee newspaper

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14:56, 27 September, 2012

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS: American Fresno Bee  daily newspaper dwelled on Azerbaijan and it dictator Ilham Aliyev, identifying  Azerbaijan with  North Korea. As Armenpress reports, the newspaper writes:” There is a despotic dictator in a small, isolated country who has an aversion for democracy and human rights. He is in charge of his country only because his now-deceased father, the former dictator, groomed him to be in charge. This dictator and his inner circle of cronies and kleptocrats are wealthy beyond belief, yet the people he is charged with leading languish in poverty. He is constantly rattling his sword and threatening his peace-loving neighbor. You cannot be faulted if you are immediately picturing North Korea, but you would be wrong. Actually it is Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is the North Korea of the Caucasus, and its dictator, Ilham Aliev, son of the former dictator Heidar Aliev, is wealthy beyond belief while his citizens suffer an opposite fate. On a regular basis he threatens to attack Armenia, its placid Christian neighbor. But Aliev has oil, so he can ignore democracy, rule of law and human rights.So the only difference between Azerbaijan and North Korea is oil, which means that Azerbaijan is a ne’er-do-wrong ally of the United States. Other than that, Azerbaijan and North Korea are pretty much identical”.

Students forced to enroll in religious schools in Istanbul (Imam Gulen)

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ISTANBUL

By:daily Hürriyet reported

Students living in Istanbul’s European-side district of Sultangazi who failed to earn good enough marks to enter the advanced Anatolian High School system or a vocational school have been enrolled in the religious imam-hatip schools without their knowledge, daily Hürriyet reported.

Nearly 3,000 students were prevented from enrolling the Anatolian and vocational schools following the entrance tests, and most of those were subsequently enrolled in religious imam-hatip schools against their wishes.

One parent claimed that despite selecting vocational schools on the forms, his son was forced to attend an imam-hatip school instead.

“We were told that there were no more vacancies in other schools,” the father told Hürriyet. “My son does not want to attend an imam-hatip. We are Alevis. They disregard that and force everyone to attend imam-hatips.”

Another Alevi parent also claimed that her daughter was enrolled in an imam-hatip even though they had selected three different vocational schools.

Other parents also confirmed that they had selected vocational schools on their forms but that their children were all placed in imam-hatip schools.

“My child doesn’t want to go [to an imam-hatip],” another father said. “They are toying around with their futures.”

Iraq now armed to shoot Turkish jets, says Air Force officers

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Iraq is now capable of shooting down Turkish jets entering Iraqi airspace to target Kurdish militants, Iraqi Air Force Officer Iskander Witwit recently told the New York Times.

An analysis of the state of Iraq following the Syrian civil conflict appeared in New York Times, where an Iraqi general said Iraqi officials were aware of Turkish jets entering their airspace and that they “resented it.”

Witwit was then quoted as saying that Iraq was now capable of defending itself against these intrusions.

“God willing, we will be arming Iraq with weapons to be able to shoot down those planes,” Witwit said.

The article defined the increase in Turkish jets crossing over as one of Iraq’s major concerns as it was undermining “Iraq’s ability to control its own [air] space.”