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Wider Chaos Feared as Syrian Rebels Clash With Kurds (NY Time Report)

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By TIM ARANGO
Published: December 6, 2012

Syrian Kurds in Ras al-Ain are seeking refuge across the border in Ceylanpinar, Turkey. More Photos »

CEYLANPINAR, Turkey — In plain view of the patrons at an outdoor cafe here in this border town, the convoy of gun trucks waving the flag of the Syrian rebels whizzed through the Syrian village of Ras al-Ain. They had not come to fight their primary enemy, the soldiers of Bashar al-Assad’s government. They had rushed in to battle the ethnic Kurds.

The confrontation spoke not only to the violence that has enveloped Syria, but also to what awaits if the government falls. The fear — already materializing in these hills — is that Syria’s ethnic groups will take up arms against one another in a bloody, post-Assad contest for power.

The Kurdish militias in northern Syria had hoped to stay out of the civil war raging in Syria. They were focused on preparing to secure an autonomous enclave for themselves within Syria should the rebels succeed in toppling the government. But slowly, inexorably, they have been dragged into the fighting and now have one goal in mind, their autonomy, which also means the Balkanization of the state.

“We want to have a Kurdish nation,” said Divly Fadal Ali, 18, who fled the fighting and was recently staying in a local community center here for Kurdish refugees. “We want our own schools, our own hospitals. We want the government to admit our existence. We want recognition of our Kurdish identity.”

 

Media hate speech targets Armenians most, report shows

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6 December 2012 / TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
Armenians abroad and Turkey’s Armenian community were the most targeted communities in articles or news items that are considered to be hate-speech between May and August 2012, according to a recent report from the Hrant Dink Foundation, released on Thursday.

The Hrant Dink Foundation regularly monitors the media for stories that target religious and ethnic minorities, or other disadvantaged groups such as the disabled or non-heterosexual individuals. Between August and May this year, there were 101 op-ed columns and news articles identified by the foundation’s experts as targeting national, ethnic and religious groups. There were 35 items targeting women and individuals with sexual orientations that differ from the general population.

The report found that the number of groups targeted went down to 15 communities from 17 in the first two reports. The majority of the content that contains hate speech was from the national press, the report found. Some 82 percent of items classified as containing hate speech, was found in national media. The remaining 18 percent came from local newspapers. Also, the report found that the majority of hate speech is disseminated in the work of columnists.

In the period between May-August, the groups that were targeted most often were, respectively, Armenians, Christians, Jews and Greeks, the report said. It noted, “Out of this group, the aspect that stood out the most in terms of hate speech towards Armenians, which we may identify as a fixed category, was their association with the [terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party] PKK within the context of the recently intensifying conflict. This discourse, produced through an understanding that “Muslim Kurds are harmless and the PKK is an Armenian movement,” was also seen to be reproduced at times with content targeting Christians and Jews. However, the most dominant assertion was that of Armenians supporting the PKK, looking for opportunities to harm Turkey, the “eternal enemy,” and being a risk factor.”

The report also found that the number of stories and columns using hate speech against Kurds is increasing. “This increase was observed to coincide with the months of July and August, when armed conflict intensified, and the Kurdish people were noted as having been charged within the context of the clashes with the PKK. In this kind of content, the issue was reduced to “Kurdish terror,” either implying that “patience was running thin” or creating enmity by attributing the issue to the Kurdish people.”

In addition to religious or ethnic minorities, the report found 35 items that employed hate speech directed at the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender (LBGT) community. In addition, the report says the Turkish press in its representations of transvestites and transsexuals associates these individuals with “crime” and “social unrest.”

The report said newspapers that gave the most space to hate speech in the May-August period, not unlike in previous periods, were those with a nationalist-conservative editorial line, with Milli Gazete, Yeni Akit, Ortadoğu, Yeniçağ and Yeni Mesaj newspapers once again being the publications with the most frequent occurrences of hate speech.

The Hrant Dink Foundation has been monitoring the media for hate speech since 2009. It says its main purpose is to combat racism, discrimination and intolerance in Turkey. The foundation monitored approximately 1,000 local newspapers and all national newspapers through the Media Monitoring Center using various key strings (such as collaborator, Turcophobe, separatist etc.). In addition to the keyword alerts, 16 newspapers, chosen in line with their circulation volume, are read and manually monitored as part of the foundation’s hate-speech watch efforts. The news is evaluated on the basis of four categories of hate speech. The first category of “Exaggeration/attribution /distortion” involves negative stereotyping and distortion. The second category of “Blasphemy / insult / degradation,” includes the direct use of denigrating or obscene words toward the targeted group. The third category, “Enmity/war discourse,” is any item that contains hostility and war-mongering expressions about a community. The fourth category, with the difficult name of “Use of inherent identity as an element of hate or humiliation / symbolization,” contains discourses where the attributes of a person acquired from birth are used to humiliate a person.

Statement on Karabakh conflict adopted in Dublin

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December 6, 2012 – 19:21 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov, Secretary of State of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Minister Delegate for European Affairs of France Bernard Cazeneuve issued a statement on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

“On the occasion of the OSCE Ministerial Council Meeting in Dublin, we, the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, call upon the parties to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to demonstrate the political will needed to reach a peaceful settlement. As our Presidents stated at Los Cabos on June 18, 2012, the parties should be guided by the Helsinki principles, particularly those relating to the non-use of force or the threat of force, territorial integrity, and equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and the elements outlined in our countries’ statements at L’Aquila in 2009 and Muskoka in 2010. Recalling the statement of our Presidents at Deauville in 2011, we again urge the parties to take decisive steps to reach a peaceful settlement.

“We regret that the expectations of more rapid progress in the peace process, which were raised by the Joint Statement of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, with the President of the Russian Federation at Sochi on January 23, 2012, were not met. Instead, the parties have too often sought one-sided advantage in the negotiation process, rather than seeking to find agreement, based upon mutual understanding. While recognizing the decrease in serious incidents along the Line of Contact and the border in recent months, we remind the parties of the need to continue to respect the ceasefire of 1994, and that the use of military force will not resolve the conflict. We urge the parties to refrain from actions and statements that foster feelings of enmity among their populations and have raised tensions in recent months. The leaders of the sides must prepare their populations for the day when they will live again as neighbors, not enemies, with full respect for each others’ culture, history, and traditions.

“We call upon the parties to demonstrate a greater sense of urgency in the peace process and to work with the Co-Chairs to give full and careful consideration to ideas presented by the Co-Chairs during their trip to the region in November. We welcome the readiness of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia to meet jointly with the Co-Chairs early in 2013 to continue these discussions. Our countries continue to stand ready to do whatever we can to assist the parties, but the responsibility for putting an end to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict remains with them,” the statement said.

Turkish activists set fire US flag

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CNN Türk reported that civil rights activist and students in Istanbul staged a protest in front of the US consulate shouting slogans against the country’s policies in Turkey.

The demonstrators threw eggs at the consulate building and set fire to the US flag.

“Criminal US! Leave Middle East,” the chanted.

Israel needs to stop feeding on blood and tears, says (The Snake oil salesman Turkish PM)

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Israel needs to “stop feeding on blood and tears” and follow a “responsible” path to a solution with the Palestinians, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said during a party meeting today.

“Israel needs to act responsibly for the sake and safety of the region,” Erdoğan said. “The region is not what it used to be. Neighboring countries, as well as the world, are now tired of Israel’s lawless acts. Israel needs to stop feeding on blood and tears.”

Erdoğan also called on Israel to stop “deceiving and torturing its own people.”

“Israel is hurting regional peace,” Erdoğan said. “It’s hurting its own people as much as the outside world.”

Baghdad cancels flight permit for Turkish minister

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Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız was forced to abandon plans to fly to Arbil and land in Kayseri instead when the Iraqi government canceled permission for him to land in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, daily Hürriyet reported.

The news of the cancelation reached Yıldız and his delegation while they were waiting at Istanbul Atatürk Airport for takeoff. Yıldız then opted to head for Baghdad first before continuing toward Arbil.

A delay in response, however, forced Yıldız to abandon either Arbil or Baghdad as a destination, causing the crew to land in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri instead.

Karabagh war comes to Hollywood, courtesy of Azerbaijan

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By: Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Karabagh (Artsakh) should not give free license to anyone to make racist and insulting statements about people on the other side of the border. Even under war conditions, there are civilized norms of behavior.

Since these two neighboring countries are in the midst of delicate negotiations to resolve their thorny conflict, it is highly irresponsible to pour oil on the fire by inciting inter-ethnic and inter-religious hatred, and inflaming pent up emotions! While some Armenians may engage in periodic emotional outbursts, Azerbaijan’s leaders have elevated the making of racist statements and anti-Armenian threats into state policy!

Such despicable behavior has caused the Artsakh conflict to spill over into Hungary (by using an axe), Mexico (by offering a $5 million bounty for Aliyev’s statue with an anti-Armenian plaque in a park), and many other countries around the world, thousands of miles away from the actual theater of conflict!

The Azeris have now decided to fight the Artsakh war in Hollywood, after Armenia officially submitted for an Oscar an innocuous film titled “If Only Everyone,” for the category of Best Foreign Film. The movie’s American premiere was held last Saturday at the ARPA International Film Festival in Hollywood.

The Armenian movie depicts the story of a young Russian girl whose father was killed during the Artsakh war. Twenty years later, she comes to Armenia hoping that the Commander of her father’s military unit would help locate his unmarked grave. After a lengthy search, the young girl discovers that her father’s grave lies on the other side of the border, inside Azerbaijan. She and the Armenian Commander cross the frontline surreptitiously in the cover of darkness, and while planting a birch tree by her father’s grave, are confronted by an armed Azeri shepherd who threatens to shoot them. Upon learning that the girl’s father is buried there, the Azeri lets them go safely after telling them with a heavy heart, that his 10-year-old son had also died during the war after stepping on a landmine. The Azeri shepherd tells that he is unable to visit his son’s grave because it is located inside Artsakh. The movie ends on a high note with a wonderful gesture, when the Russian girl and her Armenian companions plant another tree, this time next to the young Azeri boy’s grave.

Even though the movie neither contains anti-Azeri rhetoric nor depicts any scenes of the Karabagh war, Azerbaijani journalists have harshly attacked it without having seen a single clip. Apparently, the fact that it was an Armenian film was enough reason for them to try and undermine its submission for the Academy Awards! The Azeri media falsely labeled the movie as a “propaganda film” and an example of “the information war unleashed by Armenia against Azerbaijan.”

To make matters worse, Ali Hajizade, an Azeri journalist, attacked Teni Melidonian, the publicist for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for simply being of Armenian heritage! As part of her official duties, she had issued a press release that named all 71 foreign countries that had submitted movies for the Foreign Language Film category, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey!

It is important for Azeris to understand that such racist remarks have no place in civilized society. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan needs to be resolved through peaceful negotiations, not by hurling xenophobic insults. Someday, when peace returns to the region, Armenians and Azeris will have to live side by side, not as enemies, but as neighbors and friends. Azeris who are engaged in sowing seeds of hatred and racism are not only besmirching their own reputation, but unnecessarily aggravating and prolonging the antagonism between the two peoples.

Fortunately, Armenians have refrained from retaliating against the film submitted by Azerbaijan to the Oscars. Political feuds should not be converted into cultural wars or personal vendettas. May the best movie win regardless of whether it is produced by an Armenian, an Azeri or a Turk! The Academy will announce the short list of nine films in the Foreign Language Film category on December 20, 2012, the five finalists on January 10, 2012, and the Oscar winner on February 24, 2013.

“If Only Everyone” is co-produced by Tereza Varzhapetyan and award winning actor and director Michael Poghosyan, who plays the role of the retired Armenian Commander. Natalia Belyauskene is the director and Ekaterina Shitova plays the role of the young Russian girl. The movie was screened in Yerevan, Moscow, Paris, Bucharest, and Hollywood, and has won several awards at international film festivals.

Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

Tehran does not believe Baku’s assertions: Military equipment purchased from Israel may be used against Iran

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The military equipment purchased from Israel may be used against Iran, says an article by Iran’s news agency IRAS.

The author of the article, Amin Partu, post-graduate student at Tehran University Political Science Chair, writes, “Azerbaijan bought military equipment worth about $3.6 billion during the past two years. Most of the equipment was purchased from Israel. In 2012 alone, Israel and Azerbaijan signed a deal on purchase of military equipment worth about $1.9 billion. Besides, Azerbaijan announced its intention to produce warships in 2013. Surely, Israel will have a big role in this project.”

The Iranian analyst names the types of ammunition, which Azerbaijan purchased from Israel over the past years and asks, “What threat is Azerbaijan going to fight using this military equipment?”

“Baku states that this military equipment is directed against Armenia. But studies by military experts show that it is directed against Iran or Turkmenistan because Armenia has no outlet to sea. So, Azerbaijan’s anti-ship rockets are only directed against Iran and Turkmenistan,” the author concludes.

Canada hosts Genocide 100th Anniv. Coordination Committee meeting

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December 4, 2012 – 16:35 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Canadian city of Kingston hosted the 2nd gathering of the Armenian Genocide 100th Anniversary Coordination Committee.

At the meeting, the representatives of Canadian-Armenian parties, organizations and churches discussed raising Genocide awareness in Canada, as well as commemoration events slated for 2013-2015.

Is Turkish PM feeding Arab leaders Cake or snake Oil?

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Wally Sarkeesian:

How ironic the history always repeat itself, 500 years ago a Turkish man with name Ottoman infiltrated the Arab the Muslim’s and Hijack Islam and used as a tools for the Turkishness to concur three continent and at the end they come back and concur the Arab for 400 years and destroy Arab culture, the Arab went from been the most civilized and technologically advanced people To what they are today because of the Turk.  And now the Arab again they are eating cake for the hand of another snake oil sale man.. Sorry Arab but ottoman empire coming soon..