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Former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Kauzlarich on Tuesday reacted to the latest statements of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, according to which the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is over and Armenia “must determine” its borders with Azerbaijan.
“Aliyev: Armenia must determine borders with Azerbaijan as conflict is over. If the conflict is over, why the need for Azerbaijani President Aliyev to wear a military uniform?” he tweeted.
And the last war, the further development of events, showed how much Russia is interested in the region, respectively, with its people in power in Armenia. It is a common practice for all superpowers to “bet” on specific people and move them forward. They usually select and support potential leaders who enjoy the trust and positive attitude of the majority of the population. In the case of Russia, this rule did not work, because in addition to special services and regional officials, there are also active private groups that pursue their own interests, which have nothing to do with Russian state interests. Before the Artsakh elections,
that 5th column applied to me to support and push their candidate Vitaly Balasanyan. The latter is quite a submissive and manageable person, which proves that he will become a suitable local agent and implement the program of separating Artsakh from Armenia. The only problem was his low rating with the population. At that time, Garnik Isagulyan approached me with such an offer, who has been working for the 5th column for a long time, and at the same time serves the interests of various circles, including Kocharyan-Serzh. I categorically refused to become a participant in that anti-Armenian program, preferring the interests of my homeland to the promised personal benefits. Receiving a refusal to cooperate, Isagulyan started threatening.
I was informed that they would launch a dirty campaign against me in the media, as well as deprive him of the right to enter Russia. Despite the fact that I knew who I was dealing with, I still assumed that they would not go beyond threats. But with intrigues, false reports to the Russians that I needed to be pressured, they managed to extract that ban. However, I did not regret my decision, even paying such a price. I have said many times, and now I repeat, that I accept only one pro-Armenian position of a politician and statesman, other behavior is unacceptable for me. Yes, I have always stressed that due to the geographical location of our country, we are called for a partnership with Russia, but that partnership must be truly equal.
I have always spoken openly, if I have criticized Russia, for the wrong actions against my united homeland. And if I am always ready for dialogue and cooperation with the official representatives of the Russian Federation, then I have nothing to talk about with the 5th column. These groups have become more active in the recent parliamentary elections in Armenia. Moreover, today they are divided into many branches, each of them is the first to try to prove its pro-Russian orientation, not even shying away from violating the interests of the Armenian people and the state. Of course, I can advise those groups that have been resold many times to stop representing their personal interests to the state interests of Russia, but I understand that it is a senseless waste of time.
Therefore, I appeal to my compatriots to soberly analyze any information, not to believe the falsifications of the media and the image of speculation provided by the 5th column. We have only one way out, it is known. We need a strong army. And we need it not to wage war, but to impose peace on our terms. Ali recently announced an increase in his army և military budget. This means that he wants to snatch a part from Armenia. Therefore, we must hurry. No one will come from abroad to save the Armenian people from an external enemy. We have to do it ourselves. This is the overriding state interest of Armenia. And all those who worked to divide the Armenians, to weaken our country, must finally sober up, at least now, when we are facing the threat of existence.
Source: https://www.1in.am
In 2020, candidate Joe Biden promised to “rally the world” to fight “transnational terrorism.”
Yet President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have failed to confront and impose sanction/penalties upon Turkey and Azerbaijan for financing, arming, and deploying the most notorious jihadist terrorists/mercenaries.
These include: ISIS, the Hamza Division, Sultan Murad Brigade, Sultan Suleyman Shah Brigade, Al-Amshat Faction, Al-Nusra Front, and many more.
Turkey transported several thousand members of these organizations from Syria and Libya to Azerbaijan before and during last year’s unprovoked Azerbaijani-Turkish invasion of Armenian-populated Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh and Armenia.
One hundred members of Congress, the European Union Parliament, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the United Nations, and leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron have condemned Azerbaijan and Turkey for this. International media have repeatedly confirmed these terrorist organizations’ participation against Armenians.
Armenia has also submitted well-documented letters to the UN that prove the use of terrorists/mercenaries:
1. Dec. 10, 2020. UN No. A/75/644–S/2020/1191
2. March 7-12, 2021. (Fourteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice)
AMERICAN & UNITED NATIONS STATUTES
The Freedom Support Act’s Section 907 requires that Azeri aggression against Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh result in a cutoff of U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan. Section 907 also says that it can be waived only to “counter international terrorism.” Yet President Biden and Secretary Blinken just turned the law upside down by waiving 907, thus rewarding Azerbaijan’s aggression and support for terrorism.
Azerbaijan — a 1997 signatory of the United Nations Convention against the Use of Mercenaries — blatantly violated it in 2020. In November, the UN Working Group on Mercenaries accused Azerbaijan and Turkey of deploying the terrorist groups cited above. Turkey called the charges “fake news.” Azerbaijan denied everything.
Moreover, administrations have not penalized Turkey for its longstanding support for terrorist organizations. President Erdogan’s terrorist/mercenary contracting firm, SADAT, is also violating the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Despite the above, the Biden administration (as did Trump’s) has not imposed sanctions on Azerbaijan and Turkey for sponsoring jihadist terrorists/mercenaries.
MORE EVIDENCE OF TERRORISM
As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, this White House (like the previous one) has made a mockery of America’s Global War on Terror, debased U.S. foreign policy, deceived the American people, and endangered American lives, including those of our fighting men and women.
At some point, such conduct becomes American complicity with terrorism.
TAKE ACTION
AAHR requests that Americans concerned about terrorism and American principles contact President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Congress.
Please ask them to do some or all of the following (or send them this press release):
President Joe Biden, the White House:
Mail: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20500
Online: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Comment line temporarily unavailable (202-456-1111)
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken:
Mail: 2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20520
Online: https://register.state.gov/contactus/contactusform
Your U.S Senator: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
Your U.S. Representative: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Turkish businessman Sezgin Baran Korkmaz, who is sought by the U.S. on money laundering charges, purchased a private jet with U.S. government funding and the aircraft was used by Washington-sanctioned Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami, Turkish academic İmdat Öner said on Sunday.
El Aissami, who has been indicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges, used Korkmaz’s jet to travel to Turkey in January 2019, when he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the policy analyst said on Twitter.
The United States accuses Korkmaz, who is in police custody in Austria, of laundering more than $133 million in fraud proceeds through bank accounts that he controlled in Turkey and Luxembourg and seeks to extradite the businessman from Austria so he can appear before a U.S. judge.
El Aissami, who has been sanctioned by the U.S.Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and features on the U.S. customs agency’s top 10 most-wanted list as a narcotics trafficker,used Korkmaz’s private jet to fly from Istanbul to Moscow on Feb. 23, 2019, and from there back to Caracas, according to Önder.
Korkmaz purchased the jet with the funds of the U.S. Treasury – used in a money laundering scheme in Turkey – he said, citing the indictment against the 43-year-old Turkish businessman.
Korkmaz’s flights to Venezuela continued despite arrests of suspects accused of violating U.S. sanctions, the academic said, referring to the case of Leon Maal, who helped El Aissami charter a private flight from Vnukovo International Airport in Russia to Simón Bolívar International Airport in Venezuela on February of 2019.
Maal was subsequently arrested and charged in Florida for being part of the conspiracy against the U.S. Kingpin Act by participating in flights to Russia, Turkey, Dominican Republic and Venezuela with El Aissami.
El Aissami arrived in Turkey in Feb. 2019 to finalise a deal on the gold trade with Ankara at a time when the government of embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was increasingly turning to Turkey as a partner to break its isolation.
Korkmaz’s connections to the Turkish president and his inner circle make his potential extradition and testimony regarding money laundering and wire fraud charges a sensitive matter for Erdoğan and his ruling party.
GLENDALE, Calif. – The picture of an orphan refugee that became a horrifying testimony of the Armenian Genocide is from the collection of John Elder, a Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) missionary who served in Armenia during World War I. The Armenian Assembly of America and the YMCA of Glendale honored John Elder and James O. Arroll, another missionary with a reception and an exhibition at the YMCA on June 24. It showcased their work and life in Armenia during the horrors of war and famine, the formation of the first Armenian Republic in 1918 and their humanitarian efforts that saved thousands of lives.
The exhibit organized by the Armenian National Institute (ANI) first was released digitally in Washington in 2018. Rouben Adalian, the director of ANI, tells me that years ago the institute received a precious donation, the tiny negatives of the photographs from John Elder’s wife Ruth, and only later, after immense research, continuous examination and communication with the latter’s children David and Louise Elder, was he able to assemble the whole picture by combining the stories from his diary and their memories. “Before creating the exhibition, ANI posted the pictures on its website. The Elders saw them and contacted us. I was looking for the information, and little by little we were able to find out what the pictures were telling about. It was not only a discovery but also a reminder to them [David and Louise Elder] about what their father had done,” relates Dr. Adalian.
David and Louise Elder were the ones who received the honor and recognition for their late father at the reception at YMCA Glendale, traveling all the way from Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Mihran Toumajan, the Western Region Director of the Armenian Assembly of America, in his speech emphasized the significance of the “American unsung heroes” who played an important role in saving Armenian people during the most difficult time of their history.
John Elder and Arroll traveled to Armenia in 1918 to open the first YMCA in Yerevan when they were only in their early twenties. They ended up witnessing and literally participating in the tremendous humanitarian work to overcome the devastation of war, starvation, sicknesses and the increasing number of the refugee camps in many cities of Armenia. In fact, these two young men were the only Americans who decided to stay and help while the others followed advice to leave the country and return to their safe homeland. “News comes today that Erzerum has fallen into Turkish hands. Capt. Gracey considers this very serious and disappointing…Consul Smith advises all Americans to leave at once, on a special train which may be the last. With considerable difficulty secured permission to stay for the present. Arrol staying also, and there are three members of the Gracey Mission. The next day the others all left, 24 in all” (Elder, March 14, 1918). This is an excerpt from John Elder’s diary that is a part of the exhibit.
John’s son David Elder remembers how his father came up with different ideas to pay people for food and services even when the funding from the US government stopped. People trusted him because of his dedication. In addition to all the stories presented in the exhibit, David remembers those that are cherished within his family circle with a smile. “He was telling a story that once, he went with other people to get grain, and they needed to pass a water tower. A man, an Azeri, was working at that tower and blocking their way to get the grain. At that time all the foreigners were given a gun to protect themselves. He never really used it,” David tells me. “Imagine the scene: my dad, not very tall, blond hair, blue eyes, very different from people in that region at that time.” Louise Elder joins our conversation with excitement. “Anyway,” David Elder continues, “the Azeri man didn’t want them go further to get the grain [for Armenian]. He was pretending that there was a problem with the water. My dad, very furious, came to the tower and said to the man ‘if it is not fixed in two minutes, there will be only one person at it’. The man got scared and let them go.”
David also remembers how his father was telling them that he always felt an attachment to the children he helped and the managers who worked in Armenia with him. He cherished the connections that he kept during the years. And only by sharing stories from time to time was he able to cope with the trauma he endured as a volunteer.
Published on: https://mirrorspectator.com/2021/06/26/one-century-later-ymca-volunteers-are-honored-for-saving-lives-in-armenia-during-world-war-i/
Greek health authorities announced 362 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, of which 11 were identified after checks at the country’s gates.
The total number of cases is 421,266 (daily change + 0.1%), of which 51.2% are men.
Based on the confirmed cases of the last seven days, 68 are considered to be related to travel from abroad and 629 are related to an already known case.
There were 8 new deaths attributed to COVID-19, while since the beginning of the pandemic there has been a total of 12,682 deaths recorded.
95.2% had underlying disease and/or age 70 years and older.
Their median age is 67 years. 83.7% have underlying disease and/or age 70 years and older.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 2,659 patients have been discharged from the ICU.
The admission of new COVID-19 patients to hospitals in Greece is 39 (daily change + 2.63%).
The average seven-day admission is 50 patients.
The median age of cases is 43 years (range 0.2 to 106 years), while the median age of death is 78 years (range 0.2 to 106 years).
Source: https://greekcitytimes.com/2021/06/29/covid-19-362-new-cases-greece/
Defense minister, military chiefs: Turkey has killed, “neutralized”over 18,000 Kurds in six years
Turkey’s defense minister, Hulusi Akar, recently toured a military base in his nation’s southeast where most of Turkey’s 20 million Kurds live.
He was joined at the base in Malatya by the chiefs of the three main branches of Turkey’s armed forces: Land Forces Commander General Ümit Dündar, Naval Forces Admiral Adnan Özbal and Air Forces Commander General Hasan Küçükakyüz.
Malatya is also home to the Kürecik Radar Station, which NATO established in 2012 as part of its and the U.S.’s global missile shield program. It hosts an Army Navy/Transportable Radar Surveillance (AN/TPY-2)/Forward-Based X-Band Transportable (FBX-T) installation with its command center at the Diyarbakır Air Base in the capital of Turkish Kurdistan.
The Turkish government and its armed forces have been waging a counterinsurgency war against the secular Kurdistan Workers’ Party in that part of the nation since 1978, the longest such war in the world.
In the past two decades Turkey has expanded the now 43-year campaign into Iraq and Syria, in flagrant violation of international law and the national sovereignty of the two Middle East nations. And it has done so with complete impunity.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, far from in any manner expressing objections to its second-largest member state engaging in such naked transborder aggression, celebrates Turkey as playing the key role in “stabilizing our southern neighbourhood” in the words of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of the June 14 NATO summit. The summit’s communiqué praised Turkey for its “humanitarian” role in the ongoing Syrian crisis.
Turkey has already succeeded in having NATO invoke its Article 4 for consultation and intervention four times: against Iraq in 2003 and against Syria twice in 2012 and once in 2020. NATO deployed Patriot missile batteries to Turkey in 1991, 2003 and 2012. They remain there to this day, manned by U.S., German and Dutch military personnel.
There has even been discussion over the past five years of activating Article 5 at Turkey’s request. NATO moved its Land Command to Turkey in 2012 and this year handed command of its Very High Readiness Joint Task Force to the nation.
While flanked by his armed forces’ top commanders, yesterday Defense Minister Akar boasted of the Turkish military “neutralizing” over 18,000 “terrorists” (Kurds) since July 24, 2015. A news report said that the term neutralize is generally used to describe Kurds killed and captured as well as those who have surrendered, though it’s a safe assumption that the 18,000 were overwhelmingly killed, as it is that they were killed outside Turkey.
He first held video conferences with “commanding officers of military contingents stationed within and beyond Turkey’s borders,” then addressed troops at the base in Malatya.
The defense chief mentioned that “at least 18,220” Kurds had been killed in that period and 1,366 so far this year, adding, “No one should doubt that our struggle will continue until the last terrorist is neutralized.”
He bragged of three military offensives in Syria in recent years – in 2016, 2018 and 2019 – though he condemned his American NATO ally for supporting the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the country.
Akar’s visit to a Turkish military base in Iraq earlier this year – one it maintains in defiance of the Iraqi government – prompted Iraq to summon the Turkish ambassador for talks. Much as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s reading of a poem in Azerbaijan’s “victory” celebration (for the “Great Patriotic War” onslaught against tiny Nagorno-Karabakh) last December accusing Iran and Russia of stealing Azerbaijani land led to Iran summoning the Turkish ambassador to its country.
When Erdoğan was at this month’s NATO summit, he stated, he met with the presidents, prime ministers and chancellors of the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Spain, and by his own account presented each of them with a book titled “Turkey’s Fight Against Terrorism.” Turkey’s Daily Sabah reported the volume was “highly welcomed” by among others U.S. President Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
NATO and its respective member states are complicit in Turkey’s wars in Iraq and Syria.
Shortly before the NATO summit Defense Minister Akar presided over the opening of the new NATO Maritime Security Center of Excellence in Istanbul and boasted of his nation having the second-largest military in the bloc, then tried to enlist NATO’s support for the war against the Kurds in these words:
“Turkey has repeatedly called on its allies to fight together against the YPG [People’s Protection Units]/PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] and Daesh terrorist organizations in northern Syria, which threaten our national security and regional stability.”
A few days later his words were echoed by Erdoğan in referring to his NATO allies: “We expect them to respect our country’s sovereign rights and security sensitivities. We want them to display solidarity, which is a necessity of the spirit of an alliance.”
The Turkish defense minister was also part of a delegation that visited Libya in May, one that included Turkey’s foreign minister, chief of the general staff and director of national intelligence. That visit marked Libya as a Turkish military colony. Turkey is the only foreign nation with troops in the war-torn country and the only one that will be allowed to deploy them there. As though NATO’s seven-month air war against Libya a decade ago was designed to allow Turkey to play the role it is now.
The world sits back in stuporous self-absorption as 18,000 Kurds are killed in Turkey’s “anti-terrorist” war in the Middle East. With the full approval and assistance of NATO.
Source: https://antibellum679354512.wordpress.com/2021/06/26/defense-minister-military-chiefs-turkey-has-killed-neutralizedover-18000-kurds-in-six-years/
This may or may not surprise you – there is more than one national dish of Greece. The country known for its delicious cuisine simply could not choose one dish to represent it.
That’s right. While many countries single out one traditional dish to help define their nation’s identity and self-image, Greece — a country made up of extremely diverse terrain and regional traditions — has a total of six dishes that are considered to be the national dish which represents Greek culture.
These dishes represent Greeks’ love for healthy, local produce and meats, as well as the Greek Orthodox faith, which often dictates what believers can and can’t eat at certain times of the year.
In Greece, the national dishes are gyro, moussaka, souvlaki, magiritsa, kokoretsi and fasolada. All of the dishes have a cultural or historic significance in the country, and each of them are made differently, depending on the region or island in Greece.
Gyro might be the most well-known Greek food outside of Greece.
Made with meat, either chicken of pork which is roasted cooked on a vertical rotisserie, and served in a pita, with tomato, onion, tzatziki, lettuce and french fries, a gyro is the perfect all-in-one meal.
Moussaka is another classic Greek dish that’s beloved outside of the country. It is a layered casserole dish made of sautéed eggplant, minced meat, and topped with a rich Béchamel sauce.
The third national dish of Greece is Souvlaki, or grilled pieces of meat on a skewer. This is usually served with pita bread and lemon wedges.
Do not be surprised if your Greek friends ask you if you want souvlaki and then you end up eating a gyro. In some parts of Greece, the word souvlaki can also refer to the soft pita bread stuffed with meat, tomatoes, onions, tzatziki, and French fries.
Souvlaki is thought to date back to ancient times. Archaeological findings and writings clearly show that today’s souvlaki comes from the ancient Greeks.
The origins of souvlaki as slices of meat grilled on a spit date back to ancient Greece. This food, known as obeliskos (the diminutive of obelos – “spit”), was even mentioned in the works of Aristophanes, Xenophon, Aristotle and others.
A dish of bread stuffed with meat which resembles the way pita souvlaki is served today with pita bread was also attested to by Athenaeus in his work “Deipnosophistae.”
This Easter dish is a tradition across the country, although the recipe varies in different regions.
After 40 long days of the Lenten fast with no meat, this is traditionally the first meat-based dish eaten on Easter.
Made from lamb offal and seasoned with onions, dill, butter, rice and avgolemono, it is consumed immediately after the midnight Divine Liturgy in the Greek Orthodox Church.
This national dish of Greece is one of those foods that tastes so good, you’d rather not know what it’s made of.
This rotisserie dish is made of lamb or goat intestines, heart liver and other organ meats wrapped in caul fat (or lace fat) and then by yards of cleaned intestines.
Despite the interesting list of ingredients, kokoretsi is one of the tastiest dishes in Greece, and is definitely worth a try. Trust me.
Made from white beans, olive oil, and vegetables, this dish is eaten year round throughout Greece, and is perfect for the many times throughout the year when the Greek Orthodox faithful are meant to abstain from eating meat.
Armenia, Armenian cities and Armenian specialists were deliberately left out of a conference on late antique urbanism in Southern Caucasus to be held in Denmark in October, historian Hamlet Petrosyan, the head of the archaeological expeditions of Dvin and Artsakh’s Tigranakert, wrote on monumentwatch.org website on Sunday.
“With pain and disappointment we inform that in such a tragic situation in the Caucasus, a number of our esteemed colleagues have taken the path of obvious political approaches, taking the initiative to join “Cities on the Edge. Exploring Late Antique Urbanism in the Southern Caucasus (AD 300–600)” conference, where Armenia, Armenian cities and Armenian specialists were deliberately left out (details are available here),” he said.
“It is impossible to present the urban culture of the Caucasus without Armenian cities, Armenian primary sources and researchers. But this is not a new thing. I am sorry that my good friends Lara Fabian and Murtuzali Gadjiev, who are on the list of participants, did not report such an outrageous breach of academic conduct.
“It is not a matter of misunderstanding, but of deliberate orientation. If personal interest is higher than scientific integrity, there is no point in asking, explaining or expecting honesty.
“We are sorry and disappointed,” Petrosyan said.
Azerbaijani armed forces have tried to interfere with agricultural work in the Syunik province of Armenia.
Residents of the Tekh village yesterday went to the field called Andrun Karer to collect the cut grass, but the opponent’s soldiers descended from their positions and forbade the work to be carried out.
The field called Andrun Karer is included in the administrative territory of the village of Tekh, it is located in the center of the settlements Tekh-Aravus-Khnatsakh, a little further away there are several observation posts of the enemy.
This morning, the villagers turned to the head of the rural community Teh Nerses Shadunets, presented the situation and informed that agricultural machinery could not enter the territory.