The people of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) have not authorized any country or international organization to determine their fate instead of them, says the country’s top parliament official.

In an interview with Tert.am, President of the Nagorno-Karabakh National Assembly Ashot Ghulyan commented upon the latest development in the peace talks, highlighting the physical existence of their population as the vital element underlying the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

He expressed regret that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship did not address the April 2016 frontline escalations in the statement released on March 9 (ahead of the Armenian and Azerbaijani top leaders’ summit). “It would be logical if the mediators had considered those facts in their proposals and negotiations; yet, the co-chairs’ recent statement does not in essence address either the consequences of the April war or the arrangements reached. The Artsakh people have not authorized any country or organization to determine their fate instead of them.”

Ghulyan also addressed the Armenian prime minister’s statements – referring to his and the Azerbaijani president’s mandates in the negotiations and emphasizing the importance of returning Artsakh to the process as a key negotiating party (entitled to represent its own people’s position).

Asked to comment upon the co-chairs’ call for refraining from any changes in the format, the parliament speaker said, “It is important to underline that the re-establishment of the trilateral format is currently being considered rather than the introduction of a new format. The Artsakh people do not accept either coercive language or the approach of dictating policies. We, as a country, are open for cooperation, including also with Azerbaijan, to discuss any issue of mutual interest as subjects enjoying equal rights,” he said.

Investigators piecing together the motivations of the suspected gunman behind New Zealand’s worst terrorist attack are poring over the 87-page hate-filled manifesto he published, and the memes, cultural references in his online rantings, and musical allusions contained in the video he took of the deadly incident.

Then there is the multilingual lettering scrawled on his guns, with references to various figures from history, past and more recent: Serbian, Italian, Hungarian, Ukrainian. And then there’s the Georgian king and Georgian consort from the 12th century.

In all, 49, people were killed and more than 20 wounded in the March 15 attack on two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch. An Australian man who claimed responsibility for the shootings said in a manifesto that he came to New Zealand only to plan and prepare for the attack.

For Georgians, the references are perplexing and worrying.

A spokesman for the country’s State Security Service told the Georgian news agency Agenda.ge that the service was cooperating with partners regarding the weapons seized from the gunman.

What appears to link the names together, Georgian or otherwise, is the figures were all participants in major battles or military conflicts with Islamic armies from history: variously called Ottoman, Persian, Seljuk, or Turkish, depending on the era and the author.

David The Builder

One of the two Georgian names is a king known to nearly all Georgian schoolchildren: David IV, or David the Builder. Formally known as Davit Aghmashenebeli in Georgian, he was ruler of the Christian kingdom in the 12th century when it was attacked by the armies of the Seljuk Empire, an empire of various Muslim communities that, at its height, stretched from the Aegean Sea to what is today northern Afghanistan.

At the Battle of Didgori, the Georgian army defeated much larger Seljuk forces in 1121, and led the way for Georgia to expand its own kingdom between the Caspian and Black seas. The victory is called “miraculous” in Georgian, and its literature and culture is littered with references to the event.

The second name was David Soslan, who was a military leader and husband of the Georgian queen at the time, Tamar. He played a key role in leading Georgian forces in battles several decades later, against Islamic forces at Shamkor — in what is today’s Azerbaijan — and Basian- in what is today’s Turkey.

David Soslan is not nearly so well known in Georgian culture, possibly because he wasn’t considered as royal as his wife, but also because, according to some sources, he was ethnically Ossetian, another ethnic group living in close proximity to Georgia and Russia.

How the two Georgian leaders became associated with the white nationalism of the New Zealand gunman wasn’t immediately clear.

However, in his online manifesto and other writings, the gunman, who identified himself as an Australian called Brenton Tarrant, expresses extreme hatred for Muslims.

Breivik ‘Inspiration’

One other obscure name scrawled on Tarrant’s guns also caught the attention of online observers trying to figure out his motivations: the name of Pavlo Serhiyovych.

Formally known as Pavlo Lapshyn, he hailed from the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, and traveled to England in early 2013 on a temporary work visa, according to a report in the online publication Open Democracy.

Five days after arriving, he stabbed an 82-year-old man named Muhammad Saleem to death as he walked home in Birmingham. Lapshyn later confessed to the crime, telling investigators he killed Saleem because he hated “non-whites.”

He also admitted planting bombs at mosques in three towns in central England.

He was sentenced to 40 years in prison in October 2013.

Many more of the names written on Tarrant’s guns focus on the history of the Balkans, and conflict, past and present, between Christian and Muslims there.

That includes the legendary Serbian knight Milos Obilic and Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic, who both fought against the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389.

The names of several other Balkan figures who fought against the Turks over the centuries are also scrawled on Tarrant’s weapons.

In his manifesto, Tarrant wrote that he “only really took true inspiration” from Anders Breivik, the Norwegian far-right terrorist who killed 77 people in a bomb-and-gun attack around Oslo in 2011.

Before his attack, Breivik published a 1,500-page treatise with hundreds of references to the conflicts in the Balkans.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/christchurch-attacks-why-are-the-names-of-a-georgian-king-and-a-ukrainian-extremist-written-on-the-guns-/29824018.html?ltflags=mailer

“This is one of New Zealand’s darkest days,” PM Jacinda Ardern said. One man was in custody, and the shooting appeared to have been livestreamed on Facebook.

By Phil Helsel, Ben Collins, Brandy Zadrozny, Jason Cumming and Linda Givetash.

Nearly 50 worshippers were killed in mass shootings during Friday prayers at two mosques in New Zealand in what the country’s prime minister called “an extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence.”

“This is one of New Zealand’s darkest days,” said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who described the shootings as a terrorist attack that appeared to have been well-planned.

One man was in custody, charged with murder, and he appeared to have livestreamed much of the attacks on Facebook.

Police Commissioner Mike Bush said 49 people were killed with many more wounded. Scores of family members were awaiting news about missing loved ones, including children, at a local hospital.

Officers responded to reports of shots fired around 1:40 p.m. Friday (8:40 p.m. ET Thursday) in Christchurch, a city of around 375,000 people. The two mosques are about three miles apart, and the second mosque was attacked about 45 minutes after the first.

Bush said that four people — three men and a woman — had initially been detained, but it remained unclear whether all of them were involved.

Police sources told NBC News’ Australian partner Channel 7 that the main suspect’s name is Brenton Tarrant, 28.

According to Bush, “a number of IEDs attached to vehicles” were also found. He said firearms had been recovered from both scenes.

“I cannot forget the sound of shooting.”

The man who was charged didn’t appear on any terrorism watchlists, authorities said. Bush said that “no agency had any information” about the suspects before the incident.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that he was advised that one of those in custody is an Australian national, and he condemned the attack “by an extremist right-wing violent terrorist.”

Various social media posts on Twitter and the fringe message board 8chan were published online by someone who appeared to have had prior knowledge of the shootings, including pictures of weapons and ammunition.

Authorities have not confirmed that the postings are connected to the shootings, but pictures and videos seen by NBC News as well as a manifesto posted shortly before the attack match known details of the shootings.

The manifesto includes anti-Muslim rhetoric, far-right and far-left political sentiment and references to radicalization via the internet.

Users on one of 8chan’s message boards, where the manifesto and terror threat were posted before the shooting, frequently share racist, homophobic and misogynistic memes and diatribes.

The Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction, presided by judge Armen Bektashyan, resumed today hearings on extension of Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan’s pre-trial arrest sought by the Special Investigative Service (SIS).

A SIS investigator filed a motion to extend the ex-president’s arrest for another two months at Wednesday’s court hearing.

Kocharyan’s attorneys are expected to present their objections at today’s hearing.

Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom on Wednesday, one of Kocharyan’s attorneys, Hayk Alumyan said the SIS motion to extend the former president’s arrest cited the same arguments that he might avoid or obstruct the investigation.

Earlier in January, the Yerevan court declined the defense motion to release Kocharyan on bail and instead approved the prosecutor’s motion to extend arrest imposed on him as a pre-trial measure of restraint.

The ex-president yan has been placed in custody since December 7, 2018, pending trial. He is charged with overthrowing Armenia’s constitutional order during the March 1-2, 2008 post-election events in Yerevan, but strongly denies any wrongdoing.   

The 8th Armenian-Bulgarian intergovernmental commission meeting on commercial and scientific-technical cooperation took place today in Yerevan.

Minister of Transportation, Communication and Information Technologies Hakob Arshakyan, the president of the commission from the Armenian side, noted that recently the trade-economic cooperation development is proceeding at an unstable rhythm, despite the high level of relations between Armenia and Bulgaria.

“Bilateral trade figures and rather low. Bulgaria, being a part of the European Union, is a reliable and predictable partner for Armenia, with whom the economic ties have had great significance for our country,” Arshakyan said.

In 2018, turnover between Armenia and Bulgaria amounted 259,000,000 dollars, a 19,6% drop against 2017.

Armenian exports to Bulgaria totaled 215,3 million dollars in 2018, which is a 23,8% decrease against previous years, while imports from Bulgaria to Armenia according to point of origin totaled 43,8 million dollars and grew 9,5%. The positive trading balance totaled 171,5 million dollars.

Arshakyan noted that the current level of bilateral trade and investment relations doesn’t fully reflect the entire economic potential.

“We must use all those platforms that can contribute to strengthening of trade-economic relations”, he said.

“The goal of this commission’s meeting is to contribute to the establishment and expansion of long term and economically mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries’ governments for the benefit of the welfare of our peoples,” Arshakyan continued.

Issues related to education and science, culture, environmental protection, military-technical cooperation, urban development and emergency situations were also discussed.

Addressing his Bulgarian counterpart Rosen Zhelyazkov, Arshakyan stressed that the Armenian government is greatly focusing on the development of infrastructures.

He noted the ongoing North-South Road Corridor project in Armenia. “The goal of the project is to link the country’s south to the north by an internationally high standard highway. As a result of realizing the project a direct link will be created between Bulgaria and Armenia, beginning from the ports of the Black Sea, passing through Georgia, Armenia and Iran, and reaching up to the Persian Gulf. A broad opportunity is given to deepen cooperation between our countries in cargo shipments and passenger transportation,” Arshakyan said.

The Armenian government also expressed readiness to cooperate with Bulgaria in harmonizing and integrating digital economies.

Rosen Zhelyazkov, Bulgaria’s Minister of Transportation, Information Technologies and Communication, chair of commission from the Bulgarian side, said they intend to deepen investment cooperation and trade turnover.

“The guarantee for this all is a good investment climate that exists in Armenia, as well as the existing favorable investment environment in Bulgaria,” he said.

“Armenia is an important corridor for Bulgaria for exporting products to Middle Eastern countries. We hope to cooperate based on bilateral interests and trust,” the Bulgarian minister said.

The next session of the commission will take place in early 2021.