Czech Ambassador reminds Azerbaijan: MEPs enjoy parliamentary immunity at EU territory

February 23, 2017 By administrator

czech-ambassador YEREVAN. — Citizens of the Czech Republic are not eligible for extradition by Czech authorities, the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Armenia Mr. Petr Mikyska told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“Members of European Parliament, being at the territory of European Union Member States, enjoy the parliamentary immunity. Regarding the implementation of international arrest warrant at the territory of third countries we esteem that current warrant sets a possible precedent that must and will be thoroughly studied,” the Ambassador said in response to comment on the Azerbaijani media reports.

Ambassador said they “noted that Azerbaijan Prosecutor General Office issued an international arrest warrant for European Parliament members Frank Engel (Luxembourg), Eleni Theocharous (Cyprus) and Jaromír Štětina (Czech Republic) for the “illegal visit” to Nagorno Karabakh.”

Le Pen increases first round lead in French election: poll

February 22, 2017 By administrator

FILE PHOTO – Thierry Legier (L), the bodyguard of Marine Le Pen, French National Front (FN) political party leader and candidate for French 2017 presidential election, stand near as she visits the Salon des Entrepreneurs (Entrepreneurship fair) in Paris, France, February 1,… REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo

French far right leader Marine Le Pen has increased her lead in the first round of France’s presidential election, though she is still seen being beaten by a wide margin in the runoff, a BVA-Salesforce poll published on Thursday showed.

The National Front head would win 27.5 percent of the vote in the April 23 first round, up 2.5 percentage points from the last time the poll was conducted on Feb 4.

Independent centrist Emmanuel Macron was seen coming in second in the first round with 21 percent of the vote, down one percentage point, followed by conservative Francois Fillon at 19 percent, also down one percentage point.

In the May 7 runoff vote, Macron was seen beating Le Pen 61 percent to 39 percent while Fillon was seen winning the presidency with 55 percent to 45 percent.

However, because the poll was conducted on Sunday and Monday, it did not reflect the impact of the latest developments in the fast moving campaign, which has seen Fillon lose an early poll lead after being investigated over public funds he paid his family.

The poll did not take into account the possibility of veteran centrist Francois Bayrou running. On Wednesday, Bayrou announced that he would not run and would instead support Macron, which analysts say should give him a boost.

Also on Wednesday Le Pen’s chief of staff was put under formal investigation as part of a probe into alleged misuse of EU funds to pay parliamentary assistants.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-poll-idUSKBN16208I?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=58ae5f7104d301549ae11730&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

MIDDLE-EAST Two Christians burned alive in Sinai

February 22, 2017 By administrator

EL-ARISH: Egyptian security officials said suspected militants have killed two Christians in the restive north of the Sinai Peninsula, days after a Daesh affiliate vowed to step up a wave of attacks on the embattled minority.

The officials said Saad Hana, 65, was shot dead and his son Medhat, 45, was abducted and burned alive before their bodies were dumped on a roadside in El-Arish on Wednesday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Coptic Christians, who make up 10 percent of Egypt’s population, have increasingly come under attack since the military overthrow of an elected president in 2013.

A Daesh video released this week cast them as allies of the West and vowed further attacks.

Separately on Wednesday, Jean-Louis Tauran, a representative from the Vatican French cardinal, and Abbas Shuman, the deputy imam of Al-Azhar mosque, attended a joint seminar on ways to tackle religious intolerance in the world.

Blind Sheikh’s body back home

The body of a blind Egyptian jihadist convicted of plotting terror attacks in New York was brought back to Egypt for burial after he died in a US federal prison over the weekend.

Omar Abdel Rahman, the so-called Blind Sheikh, was arrested in 1993 and convicted in 1995 along with nine followers of conspiracy to blow up the UN building and several New York landmarks. He was serving a life sentence in prison when he died on Saturday.

Abdel-Rahman was the leader of a radical organization, the most feared militant group in Egypt in the 1980s and 1990s. He fled to the US in 1990.

Dozens of his followers waited at the Cairo airport on Wednesday to receive the body and take it to his hometown in Dakahliya province.

Source: http://www.arabnews.com/node/1058311/middle-east#.WK5e5WEYvgc.twitter

For every Syrian Success Against #ISIS Daesh, in turn receive flagrant attack from Israel

February 22, 2017 By administrator

Israeli military aircraft have reportedly carried out an overnight airstrike against Syrian army positions in the strategic and mountainous Qalamoun region, which lies north of the capital Damascus along the border with neighboring Lebanon.

A Syrian military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an Israeli fighter jet crossed into Syria’s airspace at around 3 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) on Wednesday after circling the skies of Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley and flying above the eastern city of Baalbek, al-Masdar News reported.

The source added that the airstrike hit Jard Nalhleh area of Qalamoun, located about 330 kilometers (205 miles) north of Damascus.

The Lebanese and Arabic-language online newspaper el-Nashra later reported that a convoy transporting weapons was the target. No injuries were reported.

The Israeli media outlets alleged that the weapons shipment was destined to fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement, who are fighting alongside Syrian government soldiers against foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants.

The aerial attack came a fortnight after Israeli tanks shelled an open area in the occupied Golan Heights, without causing any casualties.

Israeli jets have time and again carried out sorties inside the Syrian territory under various pretexts.

On January 13, a huge explosion rocked Mezzeh Military Airport, less than eight kilometers southwest of Damascus and caused a large fire. There was no immediate report of casualties though.

Syrian state TV quoted the army command as saying that the rockets, which it said were fired from an area close to the Sea of Galilee in the north of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, hit the airport’s compound.

The Syrian army vowed to take revenge for the “flagrant” attack and “amputate the arms of the perpetrators.”

“The Syrian army command and armed forces warn Israel of the repercussions of the flagrant attack and stresses its continued fight against terrorism,” it said in a statement.

Source:http://presstv.com/Detail/2017/02/22/511625/Israel-fighter-jets-airstrike-Syria-army-positions-Damascus

Croatia Sells Record Number of Arms to Saudi Arabia in 2016

February 22, 2017 By administrator

Zagreb sold a record amount of aging weapons and ammunition to Saudi Arabia in 2016, ignoring evidence the arms are regularly being diverted to Syria.

Croatia has drastically increased its sales of decades-old arms and ammunition to Saudi Arabia despite mounting evidence that the deliveries are being diverted to Syria in breach of European Union (EU) and international law.

Though it has one of the best and most expensively equipped armies in the Middle East, the Gulf Kingdom imported US$ 81.7 million in aging ammunition, including bullets, mortars, rockets, and rocket and grenade launchers worth $5.8 million from Croatia during the first nine months of 2016. This total is already double Croatia’s sales to Saudi Arabia over the previous four years, and the final value will likely be higher, as figures for the last quarter have not yet been published.

Igor Tabak, a Croatian defense analyst, said that the country does not currently produce ammunition. “It is quite likely that the exports come from old ammunition,” he said, “possibly from the inventory of the former Yugoslavia and Eastern [Bloc] production.”

While Croatia has consistently refused to acknowledge that it is profiting from liquidating its old stocks on the Syrian battlefields, defense ministry documents reviewed by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) show a major surge in sales from its stockpile coinciding with the start of the civil war in 2012.

According to those reports, the Ministry of Defense, which has a stockpile of around 18,000 tons, sold at least 5,000 tons of surplus ammunition in 2013 and 2014—as much as it had sold in the preceding decade.

The Ministry of Defense did not respond to a request for additional information on who bought the armaments and whether additional sales were made in 2015 and 2016.

Arms Exports: A State Secret

Croatia was among the first countries to supply weapons to Syrian rebels in the winter of 2012. The shipment was routed via Jordan with logistical support from the CIA and paid for by Saudi Arabia, according to a 2013 investigation by the New York Times.

Following a flurry of embarrassing news coverage, Croatia abruptly started removing key information, such as the final destination of its exports, from official reports in an attempt to keep the details of this trade out of the headlines.

The Ministry of Economy, which is responsible for issuing import/export licenses for weapons and ammunition, told BIRN and OCCRP that a 2012 law on personal data protection prohibits it from giving out this information. This is disputed by the Croatian Data Protection Agency, which said the legislation applies only to individuals, not to companies or governments.

Five non-governmental organizations described the removal of information as a “troubling decline in transparency” in their submission to a United Nations (UN) Human Rights Panel on Croatia in March 2015.

Reporters, however, obtained the data via a little-known UN database, Comtrade, which contains annual international trade statistics from more than 170 countries.

The UN database revealed that Croatia exported $36 million worth of ammunition to Jordan in the two years since the Syrian conflict began in 2012. After Croatia’s role became public, Saudi Arabia took over importing more than $124 million worth of ammunition since 2014 – two thirds in the first nine months of 2016 alone.

The two countries also imported more than $21 million in weapons, including rocket and grenade launchers, since 2012.

Prior to 2012, the arms trade between Croatia, Jordan and Saudi Arabia was virtually nonexistent. Since 2012, all but a few hundred thousand dollars of Croatia’s ammunition sales have gone to Jordan or Saudi Arabia.

A spokesperson of the Croatian Ministry of Economy said that the latest exports took place in accordance with licenses approved in 2015. He also added that some export licenses to Saudi Arabia were rejected in 2015, and none were issued in 2016 but refused to provide any further detail.

An earlier investigation by BIRN and OCCRP revealed that Croatia approved $302 million worth of arms export licenses over this period. Unless these licenses are revoked, millions of dollars in future exports are approved to go forward.

Falling Into the Wrong Hands

While experts have previously highlighted video and photographic evidence of Croatian-made RBG-6 grenade launchers and RAK-12 multiple-launch rocket systems in Syria, Croatian officials have disputed their origin, pointing out that similar weapons are produced elsewhere.

However, new analysis by BIRN and OCCRP of the social media profiles used by brigades fighting in Syria, as well from online enthusiasts who monitor the spread of weapons, provide clear evidence that these weapons are Croatian-made.

Source: http://hetq.am/eng/news/76018/croatia-sells-record-number-of-arms-to-saudi-arabia-in-2016.html

Turkey close to crossing Greece’s red lines in the Aegean: Athens

February 22, 2017 By administrator

Turkey came very close to crossing Greece’s red lines in the Aegean last week, when a Turkish coast guard vessel fired shots in Greek territorial waters east of the islet of Farmakonisi, Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias told Skai Television’s “Istories” program Tuesday, February 21 night, Ekathimerini.com reports.

In a long interview, Kotzias also spoke about Greece’s determination to protect its sovereign interests, the Cyprus issue, the case of the eight Turkish servicemen whom the Supreme Court refused to extradite to Turkey, and NATO’s operations in the Aegean.

“A year-and-a-half ago I described Turkey as a nervous power, a power, in other words, which like Germany after Bismarck in the 19th century had become nervous and did not maintain a balance with its environment,” Kotzias said in the interview.

“Some people in Turkey think that Greece could be like Syria or Iraq. The ‘game’ they played at Farmakonisi is a serious violation of international law and I think they should know that we will not always be tolerant, that our response will not only be the one that we gave then, that it will be much harsher.”

Asked what the Greek government was doing to face this “nervousness,” Kotzias said: “We have communicated with all the major powers on the planet, we have informed all international organizations and, of course, we have made the necessary protests against Turkey for their violations of our territorial waters and for their behavior. The international climate and international law are on the side of our interests, they are tools that we will not abandon. But I want to repeat from here, in this interview, that they are not the only instruments we have. We are not Syria, which has been destroyed, nor a disorganized Iraq… Turkey is making a mistake if it thinks that because we have an economic crisis we are weak as regards our country’s security. They are making a big mistake. Because we have economic problems our care for the security of our country and its sovereignty is greater than in the past.”

Asked whether Turkey had crossed any of the Greek government’s red lines, as in the Farmakonisi incident, Kotzias replied, “They nearly did this morning.”

Commenting on whether differences between Greece and Turkey could be solved at The Hague, Kotzias said: “If I had to choose between a court and war, I would choose the court. If I had to choose between a court and a bilateral, substantial and real agreement, a process of agreement, I would choose the latter. For the time being, we are in the latter process. With the difficulties caused by the situation in Turkey.”

Ekathimerini.com. Greek FM: Turkey close to crossing Greece’s red lines

Lena Kalyan. React to the film, The Ottoman Lieutenant ‘Trailer’

February 22, 2017 By administrator

By Lena Kalyan

I have recently watched the ‘Trailer, film, where is an intension to introduce the small part of the huge tragical historical event: the ethnic cleansing of Armenian nation in 1915 and after.

The Turkish political representatives and the fake historians avoiding to name Genocide this historical event, even they brought up the new generations who trying to creat artificial reasons to reject criminal and guilty past of Ottoman murderer dynasty.

The positive side of the film is that author trying remind the horrific events against Christianity when Armenian people has been the biggest losers: not just they lost the motherland and the rich culture also physically wiped away, more than the half of nation most brutally murdered.

In the film there is a visible intention: the fine way the film makers introducing the Turkish soldier’s humanitarian character that he was trying to be helpful to the victims in horrific situation.

This is a real myth.

We should understand very important fact, the real mentality of the Turkish militants.

In this civilised world the Turkish soldiers don’t show any humanity and sorrow to the Kurds and without conches they kill fighting Kurdish woman and civilians. How it happened the Turkish soldier in his uniform revealed extraordinary humanity during the First World War when bloodthirsty ottomans had the ‘holy plans’ in their murderer heads to kill the Armenian nation and obtain their wealth and the land.

This film may be has some good intentions but doesn’t look realistic.
I can see more political intension that intention to introduce the real historical fact.
I believe they want confirm that it was just a unfortunate historical event between two nations and avoid to confirm that historical event was a carefully designed GENOCIDE.

Armenian Genocide it’s not a source for romantic creations.
It is a brutal fact, it needs to introduce the realistic way and put pressure on Turkish politicians and the historians to face to their GUILTY past.

This will be the start of the real HUMANITY.

Erdogan Turkey: dismissed another 227 judges, prosecutors adding that to date 3,886

February 21, 2017 By administrator

The Turkish government has dismissed 227 more judges and prosecutors over alleged links to an outlawed movement, as Ankara continues with its crackdown following last July’s failed putsch against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Mehmet Yilmaz, the deputy chairman of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), made the announcement on Monday, adding that to date 3,886 judges and prosecutors have been relieved of their duty since the mid-July coup attempt.

Turkish officials say over 240 people were killed and more than 2,100 others injured in the failed coup, which was swiftly put down as tens of thousands of people flooded streets across Turkey to support the government.

Yilmaz further said that 200 judges and prosecutors, who were previously sacked from office, would be returned to their jobs, adding that there were a large number of others who remain under investigation.

Ankara has since accused Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Turkish cleric and opposition figure, of orchestrating and masterminding the coup. He is also accused of being behind a long-running campaign to topple the government via infiltrating country’s institutions, particularly the army, police and the judiciary. Turkey has also outlawed the Gulen movement, his large organization, in the country and has branded it as “Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).”

Ankara has so far arrested over 35,000 people and sacked more than 100,000 others, including military personnel, judges, and teachers, over suspected links to Gulen, as part of the post-coup crackdown. Many rights groups have denounced Ankara’s heavy clampdown.

Gulen has censured the coup attempt and strongly denied any involvement in the violence. Turkey remains in a state of emergency since the coup.

Syria al-Bab: Turkish airstrikes killed 110 civilians in 2 weeks

February 21, 2017 By administrator

A UK-based monitoring group says at least 110 civilians have been killed by Turkish airstrikes in the Daesh-held Syrian city of al-bab over the past two weeks.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights noted that on Monday alone eleven members of one family were killed as their home was destroyed by Turkish airstrikes and shelling aimed at paving the way for advancing Turkey-backed militants.

“There is fierce bombardment from Turkish forces on Daesh positions in al-Bab,” added the group.

It added that a large number of civilians are forced to flee their homes every day as Turkish-backed militants make advances in the city.

“I saw destruction — the artillery and the airplanes shelling. There’s destruction everywhere,” said one fleeing civilian. “We got out safe and sound, thank God, and the town is now encircled,” he added.

Al-Bab is Daesh’s final bastion in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo — second only in significance to the terrorists group’s de facto capital in adjacent Raqqah.

In August 2016, Turkey began a major military intervention in Syria, dubbed “Euphrates Shield,” sending tanks and warplanes across the border.

Ankara claimed that its military campaign was aimed at pushing Daesh from Turkey’s border with Syria and stopping the advance of Kurdish forces, but Damascus denounced the operation as a breach of its sovereignty.

“Euphrates Shield fighters gathered last night and divided up the town into three axes to facilitate the storming of al-Bab,” said a local militant field commander, Abu Jaafar.

He added that his forces were able to seize control of a medical complex, a key roundabout, and a school building in the town’s west side in operations that began on midnight.

“We’ve faced some difficulty with Daesh snipers — there were more than 10 snipers last night that surprised our troops,” Abu Jaafar added. “More than 10 of our forces were killed (Monday), and dozens wounded, because of the mines planted by this treacherous organization,” he noted.

Sexual crimes continue to haunt India

February 21, 2017 By administrator

(DW) Despite India stiffening its laws on sexual crimes, nothing much has changed on the ground. A rash of sexual assaults recently once again sparked intense discussion about attitudes towards women. Murali Krishnan reports.

Crimes against women in India, including rape, molestation and abuse, have gone up in recent months and the spate of high-profile sexual attacks in the nation’s big cities bears testimony to this spiraling yet disturbing graph.

Last week, a famous actress from southern India who has acted in over 70 films was allegedly raped inside her moving car while she was headed for the port city of Kochi from her home in Thrissur. The culprits, including her former driver, further took compromising pictures and videos of her.

The case caused an uproar across the country, with many calling for swift and stringent punishment for the accused.

Vulnerable

Delhi, which has already earned the dubious tag of the “rape capital,” was also shaken by an alarming incident over the weekend when a 24-year-old woman was raped in an upscale region of the city by a man who offered her a ride after a party. The woman, who is from the northeastern state of Nagaland, was alone and walking home when the incident occurred. Figures show that Delhi reports on average six rapes every day.

Delhi, however, is not alone in reporting such cases.

Recently, a 17-year-old girl was dragged into a car in an upmarket residential locality of Bhopal in the central state of Madhya Pradesh and sexually tortured for over an hour as she was driven up and down the same road that thousands of commuters take every day.

If that was not enough, earlier this month, two persons were arrested in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, for sexually assaulting a mentally-challenged 14-year-old girl.

“Women’s vulnerability varies enormously across states in the country. Besides, poor conviction rates have only seen a rapid rise in gender violence,” says lawyer Vrinda Grover.

Just early this year, scores of young women were groped and molested by a mob of men during New Year’s Eve celebrations in the southern city of Bangalore in an incident that numbed and shamed the country.

Systemic changes required

Such incidents have underscored the ugly history of violence against women in the South Asian country. Data released by India’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a government agency, for the year 2015 highlight the dismal level of safety enjoyed by Indian women.