The first attack targeted a police vehicle traveling in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in the center of the town of Nusaybin. Three policemen were killed and one seriously injured, told AFP an official of the forces
Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide
CANBERRA—Federal parliament member for Bennelong, Australia, John Alexander has delivered a blistering speech on the floor of Australian parliament after meeting with a visiting Azeribaijani parliament member, condemning Azerbaijan’s ongoing disregard for human rights and peace in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) reports.
His statement was delivered following a meeting – in his capacity as Chair of the House Standing Committee on Economics – with Azerbaijani parliament member Khanlar Fatiyev, who is visiting Australia as part of an official Azeribaijani Parliamentary delegation.
After attacking Azerbaijan’s capture of human rights activists, Alexander said: “I also raised my strong concerns about Azerbaijan’s actions in the on-going dispute with Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan has invested over $1 billion in armored vehicles and artillery in the past few years, making a mockery of any supposed desire for peace in the region.”
He added: “As we commemorate the centenary of the commencement of the Armenian Genocide it is essential for us as community leaders to call out persecution, and to stress to trading partners like Azerbaijan the importance of protecting human rights and political freedoms for all.”
ANC Australia’s Executive Director, Vache Kahramanian remarked: “John Alexander today spoke truthfully and powerfully on the true character of Azerbaijan. That country has spent billions around the world in an attempt to showcase itself as a democracy but actions speak louder than words.”
“Australia is a country built on the rule of law and on the fundamental respect for human rights. Azerbaijan has continued to be a blatant violator of human rights, ranking poorly in global rankings for consecutive years. Its ongoing aggression towards Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have further added to its sorry state of affairs,” Kahramanian added.
“Mr. Alexander has had a long track record of setting the record straight in the Australian Parliament on such important matters. Australia has been well served by this distinguished leader who speaks openly and honestly on such important matters,” Kahramanian concluded.
One assailant was killed and one was wounded on Sept. 15 during clashes between security forces and members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in various neighborhoods in the eastern province of Van, the Hurriyet Daily News reports quoting the local governor’s office has stated.
PKK members blocked roads in the Karşıyaka, Yenimahalle and Şabaniye neighborhoods with barricades. Locals living in the neighborhoods informed security forces of the incidents as armored police vehicles deployed to the areas were targeted with hidden bombs, Molotov cocktails and long-barreled weapons.
Meanwhile, PKK members responded to the intervention of the security forces by firing their weapons and using improvised explosives. One assailant, wearing a mask and identified as V.B., was killed while another identified as M.İ. was wounded, the statement said.
The governor’s office said judicial and administrative investigations into the incidents were continuing.
Travel.ru tourism service has found out which travel destinations in the CIS countries Russian tourists have preferred so far in the current year.
And accordingly, Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia, is in the top five CIS cities that are most popular for Russian citizens.
And Armenia—with 7 percent—is among the CIS countries that are most-liked by Russian tourists.
The number of Russian citizens’ online reservations for traveling to Armenia has increased by one-third so far in 2015, as compared to the year past.
Russian tourists have spent an average of 3.5 days so far this year in Armenia, and spent US$65 per day in a hotel in the country.
According to the 2015 summer season results, Armenia’s Lake Sevan is in fifth place in terms of the most popular CIS resorts for Russian tourists.
More are approaching the new legislative elections in Turkey, the pressure intensifies on the media opposed to power. So that not only Twitter was suspended again, but more serious, 15 pro-Kurdish TV channels broadcast would be prohibited.
These attacks on freedom of expression are part of the line of deposits complaint by the authorities against journalists, such as against the Chief Editor of Today’s Zaman, Bulent Kenes.
If the AKP were to regain the majority in the elections of November, one wonders about the emergency powers that could bring Recep Tayyip Erdogan when we see what is happening in Turkey, especially against the Kurdish population. A president who, in his wildest dreams think the rally the people to his standard by shining against the Kurds.
According to a survey Metropoll, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) would get 41.4% of the vote, against 40.9% in June, while the Republican People’s Party (CHP Kemalist left) would gain 2.3% compared to the elections of June 6, with 25%. The Nationalist Action Party (MHP) would increase his score with 15.3% (against 16.3% in June) and the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP pro-Kurdish) remains at 13% (13.1% in June).
I
Aram Khachaturyan Trio gave concerts in Tokyo on September 7-11 as part of the events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The events were sponsored by the Armenian embassy in Japan and Culture Ministry of Armenia, according to the press service of Armenian Foreign Ministry.
On September 8 the trio performed in Lutheran Ichigaya Center, followed by a concert in Tokyo’s famous Suntory Hall on September 11.
Hundreds of Japanese citizens, Japan-based diplomats and representatives of the Armenian community attended the concerts, during which works by Aram Khachaturyan, Arno Babajanyan, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky were performed.
Source: Panorama.am
YEREVAN (News.am)—Nagorno-Karabakh is rich in democratic values, not oil, head of the Francophone Parliament of Brussels, Julie De Groote, told reporters on Saturday while visiting the National Assembly of Armenia, commenting on her recent visit to Artsakh with a Belgian parliamentary delegation.
De Groote said that people need to see and realize what democracy means in Artsakh.
“We met with the ruling and opposition parties, and saw how the parties are working after the parliamentary elections on May 23,” De Groote said. “Now, we have a starting point, based on which we can track the development of democracy in Armenia.”
Member of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region, Simone Susskind, said for her part that the Belgian parliamentary delegates knew that because of their visit to Nagorno-Karabak they could be restricted from entering Azerbaijan, but that they have taken it in stride. They have already received writs from the Azerbaijani embassy in Brussels.
“[But] this does not prevent us from coming back to Armenia and Karabakh again and again, and to introduce the ongoing processes in these republics to European society,” Susskind said.
Susskin added that the Belgian lawmakers who traveled to Armenia and Karabakh were surprised by the lack of anti-Azerbaijani propaganda.
“We were surprised to see that there is no propaganda of hatred against the opponent, especially knowing about Azerbaijani leadership’s attitude toward civil society. Of course, it will be difficult to compare [the] situation with Azerbaijan. Nevertheless, we know that a part of Azerbaijani civil society does not share [the] position of the authorities,” she added.
Susskind said that this does not mean that the superiority of one party has to be underlined. According to her, it is necessary to maintain contacts between the societies of Armenia, Karabakh, and Azerbaijan.
“We have to understand how to promote dialogue,”she said.
YEREVAN. – 8 violations have been recorded on the Armenian-Turkish border since 2015, as reported by the press-service of Federal Security Service of Russia in Armenia.
“5 out of 8 violations were initiated by Turkey, and 3 by Armenia,” the press-service reports.
According to the source, all the violations were of a household nature. Weapons and ammunition weren’t discovered in any of these cases.
In contrast, in 2014 Russian bodyguards detained over 60 state border trespassers and more than 20 violators of the border regime. The number of people whose documents were considered faulty at the border crossing exceeded 1500. Over 250 people weren’t allowed to cross the border for different violations. 75 units of cold weapons and contraband of over 20 million AMD were seized.
YEREVAN. – The Salamanca Band and Bugles Of The Rifles British Army band had their first concert in Yerevan.
On Monday the musicians will be visiting Spendiaryan and Tigranyan music academies.
On Tuesday they will be performing at Freedom Square, outside the Opera House, and on Wednesday is the highlight of the whole visit which will be a concert in Republic square where they will be joined by the band of the Armenian Ministry of Defense. All of these concerts are free.
Earliar in an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am, Nick Wilkes, UK Defence Attaché Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan said to bring the band to Armenia was a good opportunity to make both defense relations and cultural relations closer.
Russia has launched its largest military drill of the year, involving 7,000 items of military equipment and some 95,000 infantry, navy and air force units.
“Today the strategic command-and-staff exercise Center–2015 has been started. This is a final stage of the operational and combat training of the Russian Armed Forces in 2015 and joint combat training activities of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization),” the Russian Defense Ministry announced in a statement on Monday.
Center–2015 is being carried out over 20 sites across Russia’s central military district (marked in light green in the map below), which spans from the Volga River to the Ural mountains and Siberia in the east and reaches to the country’s far northern regions.
According to the statement, the maneuvers’ goal is assessing the readiness of the CSTO, comprised of forces from several ex-Soviet countries, at handling “international armed conflict” and defeating “illegal armed units.”
The extensive exercises, headed by the Russian Armed Forces Chief General Staff Valeriy Gerasimov, are scheduled to come to an end on September 20.
Russia has recently cranked up its snap checks of its military capabilities, assessing its forces from the Arctic to the Far East as relations with the West sharply cooled after Crimea’s reunification with Russia following a referendum in March 2014. Relations were strained further after Ukraine launched military operations in April 2014 to silence pro-Russia protests in the country’s mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
Kiev and its Western allies accuse the Kremlin of meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs and backing pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine. Russia has resolutely denied the claims.