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Protest action in front of Azerbaijani Embassy in Poland

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16:57, 2 February, 2013

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS: Action of protest of young local human rights activists, and Azeris took place on Friday night before the embassy of Azerbaijan in Warsaw. Thirty protesters demanded the release of youth activists arrested during the protest rally on January 26 in Baku.

According to the participant of the action Khalisa  Shahverdi, who was arrested on January 26, the  blogger Emin Milli was to speak at the conference in  Warsaw, called Personal Democracy Forum.

As reports Armenpress, referring to contact.az, participants in this event, bloggers, human rights activists and representatives of civil society organizations from different countries, came to the Azerbaijani embassy to protest against the arrest of Emin Milli and demand his immediate release, as well as all the other prisoners.

Representatives of Azerbaijan: Shahverdi Khalis, Arzu Geybullaeva, and  Mubariz Rahimli also participated in the protest action.  They made posters in Azerbaijani, Polish and English languages demanding to ensure the democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan.

During the Personal Democracy Conference, the participants adopted a declaration which expressed concern about the situation in Azerbaijan. The text of the statement was presented to the participants to the Azerbaijani by the participants of the picket.

‘‘The New York Times’’: In Baku, protestors held a mock funeral of a book about massacre of Armenians in Azerbaijan

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A novella by an Azeri author that portrays ethnic Armenians sympathetically has provoked an uproar in Azerbaijan, with Azeri lawmakers denouncing the work and protesters burning the author’s portrait outside his house, the New York Times reports.

The novella, “Stone Dreams,” was published in mid-December by Ekrem Eylisli, a former lawmaker, but condemnation grew strident only over the last week, after mainstream news outlets began reporting on and discussing it. “On Thursday, a crowd of several dozen people gathered around Mr. Eylisli’s house and burned his portrait. At a session of Azerbaijan’s Parliament on Friday, lawmakers attacked the novel, with one recommending that Mr. Eylisli be stripped of his citizenship and urging him to move to Armenia,” the writer says.

Another lawmaker, Melahet Ibrahimqizi, said, “He insulted not only Azerbaijanis, but the whole Turkish nation,” a reference to passages in the book that discuss historical Turkish violence toward Armenians.

As the article writes, Mr. Eylisli, 75, said he knew there might be an uproar over his book, which he finished in 2007. He said he decided to publish it last year in a relatively obscure Russian-language journal, Friendship of Peoples, because Russian-language speakers tend to be better educated and more progressive.

“Armenians are not enemies for me,” he said in an interview. “How can they be? I am a writer living in the 21st century. A solution to Nagorno-Karabakh is being delayed, and hostility is growing between the two nations. I want to contribute to a peaceful solution.”

As Mr. Eylisli added that he was shocked by the ferocity of the reaction.

The American paper writes that on Friday, protesters placed a copy of the journal containing “Stone Dreams” in a coffin and held a mock funeral at a monument in honor of Azeris who were killed in the war. “Via social media, young people discussed passages in the book that they found particularly distasteful, like a description of the young hero’s impulse to convert to Christianity and “ask God to forgive Muslims for what they did to the Armenians,” the article says.

Qan Turali, 28, a popular novelist, said he saw the book’s artistic merit but believed that Mr. Eylisli had chosen the wrong time to publish a book portraying Armenians in a positive light. “He is a great writer, the novel is good, but the time is not right,” he said. “Azeri people still feel pain and are aggressive. Instead of increasing tolerance toward Armenians, the writer caused more hatred,” he said.

Another writer, Oktay Hajimusali, 32, was blunter, saying that it is “nonsense to promote peace with Armenians.”

Source: Panorama.am

Murder on the Rue Lafayette (the Assassination of three Kurdish woman) Author: Christopher Dickey

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Murder on the Rue Lafayette: the Assassination of three Kurdish woman

Author: Christopher Dickey:  is the Paris bureau chief and Middle East editor for Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

In any case, the challenge for the assassin is not the rate of fire. Police have not released specifics about the ballistics, but, for example, the Glock 19, a common semi-automatic pistol in the United States that became very common in Iraq as well as during the American occupation and flooded the Turkish underworld in the middle of the last decade, can easily fire 10 shots from a standard magazine in less than two seconds. The challenge is hitting the target. Even at close range, that takes considerable skill and deadly calm.

If Guney was the killer, where did he learn to shoot like that?

Although the PKK has long been designated a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union, it has extensive networks of sympathizers among the hundreds of thousands of Kurds in the diaspora, and it operates through legal political and cultural organizations as well.

“I am a representative of the BDP (the Democratic People’s Party),” says Yagizay, a former English teacher in Turkey who is now exiled in Strasbourg, France. “We have 36 members in [the Turkish] Parliament; we have 100 mayors; in the Kurdish region we are the biggest party. But there are 10,000 of our members in prison because of their sympathy to the PKK. Most Kurdish people with the BDP are sympathetic to the PKK. My brother was a member of the PKK who was killed in the mountains. Nearly every member of the BDP has a relative, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister in the PKK. We have common objectives but our methods are different.”

According to French authorities, PKK operatives raise funds by imposing a “revolutionary tax” on Kurdish merchants, which gives them a substantial war chest—and potentially a treasure to fight over. There have been frequent hints leaked to the French press suggesting the murders on Rue Lafayette were linked to that racket in some way. But few Kurdish analysts find that argument plausible. They note, on the other hand, that the Turkish government floated the idea last spring of hefty rewards for the capture of PKK leaders living in Europe and northern Iraq. That raises the question of whether the killer was, or wanted to be, a bounty hunter.

Although PKK sympathizers were quick to point the finger at the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it’s far from clear why he would have thought it necessary to work outside the normal channels of cooperation with French authorities. In 2011 alone, the French arrested 32 alleged members of the PKK, and in October last year they jailed a prominent activist and politician, Adem Ozun, in a sting operation that implicated him in alleged arms trafficking.

What appears certain is that Guney, while claiming to be an activist with the PKK, made many trips back to Turkey over the last year. Apparently he did not contact his relatives there, and both French and Turkish investigators are now focused on the question of just whom he did see. The extent and the result of that teamwork may be a test of Ankara’s real commitment to find the people behind the crime. “If the Turkish state does not cooperate with the authorities,” says Yagizay, “It means they are part of this game.”

The whole truth? Not any time soon.

Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.

Christopher Dickey is the Paris bureau chief and Middle East editor for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He is the author of six books, including Summer of Deliverance and, most recently, Securing the City: Inside America’s Best Counterterror Force—the NYPD.

For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.

Click here To read the full three pages  Visit The Daily Beast

 

Kurdish militants dismiss Turkey withdrawal reports (were lies and part of a psychological war)

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By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL | Thu Jan 31, 2013 11:46am EST

(Reuters) – Kurdish militants said on Thursday media reports that its fighters had agreed to withdraw from Turkey as part of a peace pact to end their 28-year-old insurgency were lies and part of a psychological war.

The Sabah newspaper on Thursday said Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrillas had agreed to withdraw to northern Iraq, where the group is based, by March 21 as part of peace talks with the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan which started late last year.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has staked much political capital on the talks, given the potential for a nationalist backlash ahead of elections next year.

Media reports this week of a planned pullout have fuelled optimism about progress towards an end to the conflict which has killed some 40,000 people.

The PKK statement denied those reports as well as others in Turkish media that said Ankara was in talks with the militants in northern Iraq.

“The stories on this subject are also completely invented lies,” the statement said. “These stories are activities in a deliberate psychological war aimed at manipulation.”

Sabah, which is close to the government, said the PKK pullout would begin at the start of March when the weather in southeast Turkey turns milder. It said Ocalan, imprisoned on Imrali island south of Istanbul, was expected to issue a call within 10 days for the militants to declare a ceasefire after Kurdish politicians visit him.

Sabah did not name its source. Only a few officials are involved in the talks and have not disclosed details publicly, with the government wary of endangering its support ahead of local and presidential elections in 2014.

The PKK said it fully supported Ocalan representing the group in negotiations and called for him to be allowed to hold talks with the rest of the rebel leadership. He has been held in near isolation since he was captured in 1999.

“Talks between the leader Apo (Ocalan), our leadership and elements in the KCK (rebel umbrella group) must be facilitated for the process to advance properly in a way that will achieve results,” it added.

KURDISH RIGHTS

The rebels took up arms in 1984 with the aim of creating a Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey. Declared a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union, the PKK has since moderated its goal to one of autonomy.

PKK fighters withdrew from Turkish territory on Ocalan’s orders after his 1999 capture as part of moves towards peace, but several hundred militants are thought to have been killed by security forces during the pull-out.

Erdogan gave his word this month that the same thing would not happen again. He also sought to strike a middle ground between supporting the peace process while maintaining a hardline against the militants.

“We will not give the slightest ground in the struggle against terrorism,” he said in a speech on Thursday.

In return for the pull-out of militants and their ultimate disarmament, the government is expected to boost the rights of Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of Turkey’s population of 76 million.

As part of those reforms, Turkey’s parliament last week passed a law allowing defendants to use Kurdish in court in a move seen aimed at breaking a deadlock in the trials of hundreds accused of links to the PKK. [ID:nL6N0AU2VN]

On Thursday, a court in southeastern Turkey acquitted 98 mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) of charges they belonged to a “terrorist organization” and had disseminated propaganda calling for better prison conditions for Ocalan.

President Abdullah Gul approved the law late on Wednesday, and a court in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir officially allowed the first Kurdish testimony on Thursday. Defendants have spoken in Kurdish before but on those occasions the court switched off their microphones.

(Additional reporting by Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir, Turkey, and Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Rosalind Russell)

Diyarbakır Mayor Baydemir acquitted on terror charges

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Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir, who had faced 42 years in prison if convicted on charges of dissemination of terrorist propaganda and abetting a terrorist organization, was acquitted of the charges leveled against him late on Thursday.

Baydemir, who was charged with taking part in illegal activities and making propaganda for a terrorist organization, was acquitted on all charges. He had not been jailed pending trial and continued to do his job as mayor of the city during the trial.

The Diyarbakır 7th High Criminal Court delivered the final decision in a hearing on Thursday while Baydemir was absent. The prosecutor had demanded the case be dropped due to a lack of concrete evidence.

After reviewing the evidence and the prosecutor’s demand, the judges ruled for the acquittal of Baydemir.

Court demands MİT documents in Dink case

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31 January 2013 /  İSTANBUL
The İstanbul 2nd High Criminal Juvenile Court, which oversees the case of Hrank Dink, who was killed by an ultranationalist teenage in January 2007, has demanded documents belonging to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) that were sent to a parliamentary coup commission as part of ongoing investigations into past military coups.

MİT sent confidential documents to the commission about the activities of some illegal structures within state institutions.

According to the documents, the Wartime Search and Rescue Unit (MAK) resorted to illegal methods and carried out several atrocities, and it was used to conduct psychological warfare against certain political parties and individuals.

MAK was affiliated with the Special Forces Command within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and is one of the illegal structures known to exist within the military. Claims were raised in the past that MAK was the entity behind many political and military assassinations.

The İstanbul court requested that the commission send copies of the MİT documents, which could be helpful in order to reveal the existence of an organized group behind Dink’s murder.

Dink’s family and lawyers believe that there is a deep structure behind the murder and dismiss last year’s court verdict that held a few teenagers responsible for killing Dink.

Last year, the İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court handed down life sentences to Yasin Hayal, a major suspect in the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink, of instigating a murder while another suspect, Erhan Tuncel, was acquitted of murder charges.

The İstanbul court issued its ruling in the 25th hearing of the case last January, ending a five-year trial. The two, and all other suspects, were cleared of charges of membership in a terrorist organization. Tuncel was given 10 years and six months for an unrelated McDonald’s bombing in 2004.

The lawyers believe that the MİT documents would shed light on some dark and unknown points in the case. The court ruled out links to any organization in the murder when it delivered its final verdict last year.

Lawyer Hakan Baltacıoğlu requested the MİT documents in a hearing on Jan. 31 and said that the court must acquire them from the parliamentary commission.

Noting that the investigation conducted on the possible role of public servants in the case fell short of expectations, Baltacıoğlu said the prosecutor addressed an organization in the murder in a case where several suspects are being tried over their role in the Dink murder.

MİT sent the documents concerning MAK to the parliamentary Coup and Memorandum Investigation Commission when the commission was carrying out its investigation into past coups last year. The documents were marked as “extremely confidential” by MİT and were not shared with the media or included in a final report prepared by the commission about its findings as part of the investigation.

German Armenians and Western Armenians National Congress to organize evenings of political discussion

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20:50, 31 January, 2013

YEREVAN, JANUARY 31, ARMENPRESS: Evenings of political discussion will be organized in Germany by initiation of Central Council of Armenians in Germany and Western Armenians National Congress.

As Armenpress has been informed from Central Council of Armenians in Germany, members of Western Armenians National Congress expressed willing to visit Armenian communities and present their institution and programs in frames of their visit to neighboring European countries.

During political meeting-discussion speakers will present their projects and answer questions of the participants.

Speakers of political discussions are lieutenant-general Norat Ter-Grigoryants, Karen Mikaelian, Aragats Akhoyan and Sevak Artsruni.

Evenings of political discussion will launch on February 1.

British Ambassador to Armenia: I was shocked at news of Paruyr Hayrikyan shooting

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British Ambassador to Armenia Jonathan Aves has commented on the shooting of presidential candidate Paruyr Hayrikyan.

“Like everyone else I was shocked at the news of the shooting of Paruyr Hayrikyan yesterday. Coincidentally, I had the honour of meeting him earlier in the day to discuss his election campaign.

I could not have imagined that he would suffer such a dreadful attack only hours later. I extend my personal sympathy and those of the British Embassy to Mr Hayrikyan, his family and friends and wish him a speedy recovery,” Jonathan Aves wrote on the Embassy’s Facebook page.

Armenian bishop urges world to take lesson from Iran for proper treatment of religious minorities

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Head of the Armenian Diocese of Isfahan Archimandrite Babken Charian said the international community should look at Iran as a role model for proper treatment of religious minorities and respecting them, IRNA reported.

In a meeting with Governor General of the central province of Isfahan Alireza Zaker-Esfahani Wednesday evening, the bishop praised the Islamic Republic for having managed to establish a very good interaction with members of religious minorities.

Zaker-Esfahani, for his part, stressed the need for promoting interaction among divine religions as the major needs of the human community today.

He said the evil plans of enemies will certainly fail if all divine religions adhere to foster unity.

Turkish snake oil salesman ERDOĞAN OFFERS Greek Prime Minister TO BUILD MOSQUE IN ATHENS

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Instate of Greece PM ask Turkish PM return of Greece territory the Turkish PM want to build more Mosque in Greece???

During the meeting between and Greek Prime Minister , which was an unexpected development that transpired while the prime minister was in , the two discussed the long-standing plans to build a mosque in Athens. Erdoğan offered a proposal that Turkey assist in building the mosque in Athens as long as the Greek government is willing to issue the necessary licensing.