Iranian MP: Friendly relations with Armenia will boost bilateral cooperation in many fields

June 26, 2013 By administrator

Friendly and historical relations between Armenia and Iran create good opportunities for development of Iranian-Armenian relations, Chairman of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi announced at a meeting with Armenian ambassador to Iran Grigor Arakelyan on Wednesday, Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA reported.

Referring to economic relations between Armenia and Iran, the Iranian MP said, in part, “It is necessary to use all existing capabilities in order to contribute to the deepening of bilateral cooperation in trade, industry and other economic fields. Friendly relations with Armenia will boost bilateral cooperation in many fields.”

Grigor Arakelyan, for his part, stressed that Iran’s 11th presidential election was successful, and expressed hope for further expansion of relations between Armenia and Iran.

One of Warsaw parks named “Armenian Park”

June 26, 2013 By administrator

One of the parks in Polish capital of Warsaw has been named “Armenian Park”.

Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan, who is in Poland during these days for the official visit, Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan and other members of the delegation were present at the event.

Yerevan municipality’s press service reported that the decision to name the park in such way was adopted by Warsaw City Council as a sign of Armenian-Polish century-long friendship.

As part of ceremonial event, clergyman of the Armenian Apostolic Church has consecrated the Armenian cross-stone unveiled in the park. It is the gift of the Republic of Armenia to Warsaw.

Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz presented to Yerevan Mayor a board with Armenian Park writ.

After the event Taron Margaryan spoke with the representatives of the Armenian community and informed that Yerevan and Warsaw have signed Memorandum of Intentions which supposes closer cooperation between the two cities.

Wise man resigns from post over Turkish PM’s stance during Gezi Park protests

June 25, 2013 By administrator

Academic and columnist Murat Belge has announced his resignation from the Wise Persons’ Committee, which had been formed by the Turkish government to assist the country’s bid to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue, The Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Belge, who was a member of the southeastern region committee, said the atmosphere created by the government with the Gezi Park unrest in Turkey was not appropriate to finding peace and he would not attend Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s meeting with the 60-member committee on June 26.

Belge announced his resignation in his column today in daily Taraf, saying the choice of words and language of the prime minister during the unrest in the country since May 31 was a “personal insult” to him as well.

“Like all those Gezi things did not happen, like all those insults were not said [by the prime minister] I found it meaningless and also impossible to speak about peace,” he said.

The world economy explained with two cows

June 25, 2013 By administrator

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows. You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other and then throws the milk away.

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.

VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyze why the cow has died.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows. You go on strike, organize a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you do not know where they are. You decide to have lunch.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5,000 cows. None of them belong to you. You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim that you have full employment and high bovine productivity. You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows. Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows. You tell them that you have none. Nobody believes you, so they bomb the crap out of you and invade your country. You still have no cows but at least you are now a Democracy.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. Business seems pretty good. You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows. The one on the left looks very attractive.

A GREEK CORPORATION
You have two cows borrowed from French and German banks. You eat both of them. The banks call to collect their milk, but you cannot deliver so you call the IMF. The IMF loans you two cows. You eat both of them. The banks and the IMF call to collect their cows/milk. You are out getting a haircut.

AN IRISH CORPORATION
You have two cows. One of them’s a horse!

Demonstration marking 1993 Sivas massacre joins hands with Gezi Park

June 24, 2013 By administrator

ISTANBUL – Anatolia News Agency

Thousands gathered in Istanbul’s Anatolian district of Kadıköy to mark the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Sivas massacre, upon a call from Alevi associations.

A number of unions as well as the Taksim Solidarity Platform, a local organization that launched the Gezi Park protests, also attended the demonstration. A representative of the platform made a speech emphasizing that their demands had yet to be met by the government.

The crowd was commemorating the killing of 35 people on the night of July 1-2, 1993, in an arson attack led by a mob on a hotel where many Alevi intellectuals and artists who had come to Sivas for a conference were staying. The controversies surrounding the pogrom have never completely been uncovered and an Ankara court dropped the case on the killings in March 2012, ruling that the charges against the suspects exceeded the statute of limitations. The Madımak hotel has since become a symbol of the discrimination faced by the Alevi community, who have long asked the state to turn it into a memorial museum.

Demonstrators also commemorated Ethem Sarısülük, a young Alevi protester who died after allegedly being shot by police during the Gezi Park events in Ankara.

Outcry over third Bosphorus bridge’s name

At the Kadıköy demonstration, Kemal Bülbül, the Chairman of the Pir Sultan Abdal Culture Association, slammed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s attitude toward the Alevi community. “After saying ‘one confession,’ ‘one religion,’ ‘one language,’ ‘one race,’ he now says ‘one man.’ We don’t accept any of it,” Bülbül said.

He also criticized the choice of the name “Yavuz Sultan Selim” for the future third bridge over the Bosphorus. Known in English as “Selim the Grim,” Selim is the Ottoman Sultan who is well known for slaughtering Alevis, and the Alevi community has repeatedly expressed its outrage over the government’s selection.

Following the bridge furor, President Abdullah Gül proposed to name a future project after Hacı Bektaş, a mystic who influenced the Alevi faith, or the Alevi poet Pir Sultan Abdal.

“Change the name of the university in Sivas to Pir Sultan Abdal. Establish the Hacı Bektaş Theology University. Change the name of Tunceli, which is in fact the name of a military operation, back to Dersim. Then we’ll talk,” Bülbül said.

“Establish an inquiry commission into all the people who have been the victim of massacres: Alevis, Armenians, Syriacs, Turks, and Kurds,” he added.

The Kadıköy demonstration came on the same day that Erdoğan warned of attempts to “foment ethnic tensions” in Turkey during a rally in Erzurum. He also hinted that a future rally could be held in Sivas, as preparations for the 20th commemoration of the attack on the Madımak hotel are ongoing.

Turkish demonstrators in Germany demand withdrawal of Armenian Genocide part from German text-books

June 24, 2013 By administrator

Turks have gathered in German Dusseldorf demanding withdrawal of ‘In 1915 Turks committed genocide against Armenians’ formulation from history text-books.

According to Time Turk about 8 thousand signatures have been gathered in favor of it.

They have organized a rally in Dusseldorf trying to draw the attention on the gathered signatures.

One of the participants of the rally Ali Soilenmezoglu stated they demand the both parties to study the topic and give their response, otherwise they will continue the rallies.

No Armenian victims in Lebanon clashes

June 24, 2013 By administrator

June 24, 2013 – 15:40 AMT

No Armenian victims have been reported in the recent Syria-related clashes in Lebanon, editor in chief of Beirut-based daily Aztag told PanARMENIAN.Net

According to Shahan Kandaharian, the situation is currently quiet in Beirut; however, violence is ongoing in the streets of Tripoli. The city’s Armenian population is unharmed, according to reports.

At least 12 people were killed in fierce clashes in the Lebanese city of Sidon on Sunday, June 23, between the army and followers of a Sunni Muslim cleric who have been caught up in sectarian fighting fuelled by the war in neighboring Syria.

Guns and rocket fire rattled the port city 40 km (28 miles) south of Beirut that has been on edge since violence erupted there last week between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslim fighters, at odds over the Syrian conflict.

Turkish Spring? ( Video )

June 23, 2013 By administrator

Protesters in Turkey are raging against Prime Minister Erdogan. What is the source of their dissatisfaction? Is Turkey experiencing its own version of the Arab Spring? And is Erdogan trying to accomplish too much, too fast? CrossTalking with Alon Ben-Meir, Zayd Alisa and Michael Dickinson.

Greece: Greek government on knife edge as coalition party pulls out

June 23, 2013 By administrator

By Anthee Carassava, Athens

Greece’s troubled coalition government lay in tatters on Friday after a leftist partner withdrew from the alliance amid a crisis over the sudden shutdown of the country’s state broadcaster.

The Democratic Left party, a junior partner in the country’s tense right-left coalition, pulled out of the government after Prime Minister Antonis Samaras refused to back down on his closure of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), a move which has led to countrywide protests.

The departure of the Democratic Left stoked fears of fresh turmoil in the bailed-out country. Leaving the coalition on a knife edge, it marks the gravest crisis to engulf the government since the three parties joined forces year ago to steer Greece – the first domino to fall in Europe’s lingering debt crisis – to economic recovery.

Officials ruled out snap elections and Mr Samaras was set to swiftly overhaul his cabinet council to reassure Greece’s European peers and the International Monetary Fund that his reform-minded government was up and running.

At least two ministers from the Democratic Left were due to be replaced, including Antonis Manitakis, the minister of public administration, who infuriated creditors with his resistance to mass public sector layoffs and the closure of state organizations. An additional two deputy ministers were clearing out their government offices, preparing to resign, party officials told the Telegraph.

A flurry of emergency meetings and votes at the Democratic Left headquarters on Friday pooled resounding support for the pullout, a move proposed by the party’s leader, Fotis Kouvelis. A soft-speaking grandfatherly-like figure of the leftist party, Mr Kouvelis had stormed out of crisis talks with the prime minister and his socialist counterpart, Evangelos Venizelos of PASOK, late on Wednesday, refusing to sign up to a compromise solution over the sudden switch-off on June 11.

“It was very difficult to continue,” he said. “There was serious disagreement [with the Prime Minister].”

The departure of Democratic Left and the support of its 14 lawmakers from the government leaves Mr Samaras relying on the socialist PASOK party, alone, to press ahead with the vital reforms — including 15,000 public sector layoffs by 2014 – that international lenders want in exchange for continued bailout funds.

The two remaining parties commands a slim three-seat majority in Greece’s 300-member parliament. Still, a duo of independent lawmakers have pledged to back the government’s fiscal policies, while Mr. Kouvelis conceded that he would passively support the government from the backbenches of parliament.

“Reforms should continue,” he said. “We stand by our core belief that that the country should stay within the euro.”

While the coalition may be able to corral enough support to survive in the near term, the Democratic Left pull-out casts a pall over its fate and that of the country’s troubled bailout programme.

“Even if it survives for now, a limping government can not last for long,” said John Loulis, a leading political strategist. “There will be more crises. They won’t be able to push reforms.”

“At some point — sooner rather than later we’ll have early elections,” he added.

Greece plunged into political crisis when the Prime Minister shut down ERT, sacking all its 2656 employees because of what he called a “sinister operation of waste and corruption.” The heavy-handed, abrupt move – with millions of television screens left black and scores of radio signals dead – touched off fiery protests, provoking a powerful political backlash.

For days, both of the premier’s governing partners insisted the 75-year-old network resume broadcasting, allowing restructuring to take place while it was in operation.

To defuse tensions, Mr Samaras offered earlier this week to hire back some 2000 employees for three months, until a new entity with a leaner and more efficient workforce was set up. But it was not enough to keep the Democratic Left in the coalition fold.

Greece’s fresh political turmoil coincides with a new hitch in the country’s multi-billion dollar bailout, following a potential funding shortfall due to the reluctance of some eurozone central banks to roll over their holdings of Greek government bonds, Reuters reported.

As a result Greece saw its borrowing costs spike on Friday with 10-year government bond rising to their highest level – 11.35 – percent since late April. Greek stocks sank by nearly 3 per cent.

Turks, Greeks, Brazilians join in protests in US (calling Erdoğan “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,)

June 23, 2013 By administrator

NEW YORK – Anatolia News Agency

Protesters from Turkey, Greece, Brazil and Mexico jointly demonstrated in New York in support of the ongoing protests in their countries.

Around 300 people, mostly Brazilians, gathered at Zucotti Park in New York’s Manhattan neighborhood to chant slogans, shouting, “We are the public, we are strong, we will not be defeated,” and “This is just the beginning, resistance goes on.”

A group called the Turkish-Greek Solidarity carried banners declaring joint resistance, while some of the Americans and tourists were seen showing support for the protests. The group dispersed peacefully after posing for the media with their flags and banners.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had likened the Gezi Park protests in Turkey to the demonstrations in Brazil on June 22, arguing that the same thing was at stake in both countries.

“The same plot is being laid in Brazil. The symbols, the banners, Twitter and the international media are the same. They are doing everything they can to accomplish what they couldn’t achieve in Turkey,” said Erdoğan.

Thousands of people marched against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Germany’s Köln on June 22, calling Erdoğan “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” German daily Die Zeit reported.

The protesters in Köln demanded Erdoğan’s resignation and early elections, while they held a minute’s silence for all the people who had lost their lives for the sake of freedom and democracy.

June/23/2013