StudentCam is C-SPAN’s annual national video documentary competition that encourages students to think critically about issues that affect our communities and our nation. This year students were asked to create a 5-6 minute long video exploring the issue they most want the president and new Congress to address in 2021. 

11th grade students Sofia Gevorgian & Anahit Malumyan from AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School in Canoga Park, California won 1st Prize for their documentary about U.S. foreign policy and support for the principles of international democracy, “Dear Congress and Mr. President, Recognize Artsakh.” As 1st Prize winners, the duo will share $3,000 in prize money. 

C-SPAN is funded by America’s cable and satellite television companies, who also support StudentCam. In Canoga Park, C-SPAN is available locally through Spectrum.

“Spectrum is committed to strengthening the communities where we live and work through unique educational programs like C-SPAN’s StudentCam competition,” said Adam Falk, Senior Vice President, State Government Affairs for Charter Communications, Inc., which operates the Spectrum brand of TV, internet, mobile and voice services. “These students have not only adapted to the numerous educational challenges this year, but have risen above those difficulties to create thought provoking documentaries. Charter would like to congratulate all the recipients on receiving this honor.” 

Source: http://studentcam.org/sc2021_files/1stPrize-AGBU0418.htm

Turkey is challenging for the first time the Greek-Egyptian EEZ it sent a Turkish frigate into the area south of Crete in order to threaten a French research ship that is studying the Greek continental shelf.

The French research ship «L’ATALANTE» requested permission from Greece to proceed with investigations well within the EEZ defined by the Greece-Egypt agreement west of the 28th meridian.

For the first time, Turkey did not issue a Anti Navtex but proceeded to send a frigate in order to drive the French research ship out.

The French research is accompanied by a frigate of the Greek Navy

Turkey, using the illegal memorandum with Libya (GNA) , with an unprecedented move that points to a state of war, sent a frigate to threaten the French ship to leave the region, claiming that based on the illegal memorandum Turkey has signed with the GNA government of Libya is, the area is under Turkish control.

Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the United States Department of State Victoria Nuland says the US has very complex relations with Turkey which will require a lot of effort since Ankara renounces democracy.

“We have a lot of work to do in bilateral relations in order to clarify our concerns not only in regard to what Turkey is doing beyond its borders, but also in the country, including democracy, human rights and freedom of press,” Nuland said at an international relations conference.

“A NATO ally must support democracy. I can’t wait for the opportunity for Ankara to return and launch talks over this,” she added.

According to Nuland, the US needs to continue to pressure Turkey over the S-400 missile systems and maintain the same stance in regard to the issues of Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Dictators have their own strategies to distract and deceive the United States with charm, charisma, caviar and cocktails. @JoeBiden

by Michael Rubin,

Azerbaijani Ilham Aliyev is proud. On April 12, 2021, Azerbaijani public television station ITV broadcast an hour-long program inaugurating a new museum in Baku to celebrate Azerbaijan’s victory in the forty-four-day Nagorno-Karabakh War.  Aliyev, who never served in the military even as his peers fought in the first Nagorno-Karabakh War, strolls around in military fatigues showing off captured Armenian equipment and wax models of Armenian soldiers before addressing assembled troops. The centerpiece of the “Park of Trophies” is an arch made from the helmets of killed and captured Armenian soldiers. That Azerbaijan continues to hold illegally 260 prisoners of war (POWs) and kidnapped civilians, some of whom it might have killed in captivity, underscores the tastelessness of the display.

Aliyev is not the first to construct such a display. In his 1991 work The Monument, a study of the public art of a totalitarian society, Kanan Makiya, the son of a famous architect and a prominent Iraqi intellectual, profiled the “Victory Arch,” known to locals as the Swords of Qadisiyah. Commissioned in 1985 and opened four years later, the monument, which stands taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, consisted of forearms molded from Saddam Hussein’s own and fists holding crossed swords made from steel derived from the melted weaponry of fallen Iraqi soldiers. Five thousand Iranian helmets taken off the battlefield completed the monument. Hussein’s speech initiating its construction was little different from Aliyev’s: “Brave Iraqis have recorded the most legendary exploits in defense of their land and holy beliefs,” Hussein declared on April 22, 1985. “We have chosen that Iraqis will pass under their fluttering flag protected by their swords which have cut through the necks of the aggressors.” Aliyev, for his part, declared at the park’s inauguration on Monday, “Everyone who visits the park of military trophies will see the strength of our army, will see our willpower, and how hard it was to achieve victory.” As for POWs, I was the Pentagon Iraq desk officer on duty when the mass graves of Kuwaiti prisoners whom Hussein had seized were found.

The similarities between Hussein and Aliyev are increasingly hard to dismiss. Years before he became an avowed enemy, Hussein intrigued the State Department who saw him as a pragmatic moderate. In an April 1975 meeting, for example, Assistant Secretary of State Alfred Atherton for Near Eastern Affairs told Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, “Hussein is a rather remarkable person . . . he’s a very ruthless and—very recently, obviously—pragmatic, intelligent power.” The United States holds much the same assessment toward Aliyev.  

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan dispatched Donald Rumsfeld, at the time a former secretary of defense, to meet with Hussein. Rumsfeld was impressed. “I began to think that through increased contacts we might be able to persuade the Iraqis to lean toward the United States and eventually modify their behavior,” he recalled. Undersecretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger told Hussein’s envoy not to take seriously American condemnation of chemical weapons. The recent history of the Minsk Group shows U.S. officials likewise seemingly downplaying concerns about Azeri violations of its international agreements. 

In both cases, the State Department was willing to ignore the treatment of minorities. When reports surfaced regarding Hussein’s use of chemical weapons against Iraq’s Kurdish population, one American diplomat explained, “The approach we want to take is that, ‘We want to have a good relationship with you, but that this sort of thing makes it very difficult.’” Meanwhile, the State Department remains silent as Aliyev calls the Armenian genocide false. 

There has also been a similar sense of dictator chic surrounding Hussein’s Iraq and Aliyev’s Azerbaijan. In December 1985, the Washington Post Magazine gave a swooning account of a dinner party hosted by Iraqi ambassador Nizar Hamdoon whose outreach was targeting influential Jewish American and pro-Israeli figures. Today, the Azerbaijani embassy in Washington regularly targets the same audience. Journalists and diplomats both recognize Aliyev’s “caviar diplomacy.” 

Both Hussein and Aliyev also sought glory through territorial conquest while blaming their victims. When Hussein bragged about decapitating Iranian aggressors, he omitted that Iraq started the war with a surprise attack. Likewise, Aliyev suggests that Armenians were the aggressors when it was Azeri forces, in conjunction with Turkish support, who launched a multipronged, surprise attack on Nagorno-Karabakh on the centennial anniversary of the Ottoman invasion of Armenia. Both Hussein and Aliyev were also irredentists. American diplomats dismissed Hussein’s repeated statements that Kuwait was a wayward Iraqi province as rhetoric excess right up to Iraq’s surprise invasion of Kuwait; today, the State Department ignores Aliyev’s statements laying claim to the entirety of Armenia.  

The parallels go further. While diplomats considered both Hussein and Aliyev secular moderates, both sought to channel Islamist extremism to their benefit. Years before the Islamic State beheaded women deemed un-Islamic, the Fedayeen Hussein would decapitate women, many professionals, whom the Baathist regime deemed “prostitutes” for refusing to veil. During the most recent conflict, Aliyev imported and dispatched Al Qaeda-linked mercenaries from Syria. 

Enumerating the similarities between Hussein and Aliyev is not just an intellectual exercise, but rather a warning. While the State Department debates its strategies toward other countries, seldom does it recognize that dictators have their own strategies to distract and deceive the United States with charm, charisma, caviar and cocktails. They believe Americans naïve for allowing themselves to be distracted by a paper-thin patina while they pursue other agendas. Should American officials continue to calibrate policy to the style of Azeri officials rather than the reality of their policies, however, the world will likely see another war of aggression by Azerbaijan, just as Hussein launched his own against Kuwait more than three decades ago. 

Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). You can follow him on Twitter: @mrubin1971.

Image: Reuters

Source: https://nationalinterest.org/feature/azerbaijan%E2%80%99s-ilham-aliyev-new-saddam-hussein-182853

by PAUL ANTONOPOULOS,

With a strong posture, a firm voice, exhuming confidence and very particular rhetoric, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias taught Turkish diplomacy a very harsh lesson that it is clearly not accustomed to.

We do not have to look far back to remember last week’s #sofagate incident between EU leaders and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was left almost speechless when she was not offered a chair to sit alongside Erdoğan and European Council President Charles Michel.

In fact, Michel was a stunned mullet unable to utter a word in defence of his European counterpart.

Of course, Michel’s sheepish and cowardly reaction to the insult against von der Leyen was preceded by his clasped hands and bow in front Erdoğan, who appears to be smirking behind the mask and petted the unelected European leader condescendingly.

Although the European Union continues to be meek, weak and indecisive in the face of Turkey’s endless violations of Greek and Cypriot territory, as well as direct threats of war, Dendias, full of confidence, went into the lions den yesterday.

First Dendias met with Erdoğan for about an hour, then had a one on one meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, followed by a delegations meeting, and finally joint statements.

With Çavuşoğlu regurgitating the usual Turkish talking points devoid of international law and reality, Dendias, with palm outstretched when Turkish officials attempted to prevent him from responding, highlighted the major contradictions said by his counterpart.

First Dendias highlighted that Turkey continues to violate international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Turkey is one of only 15 countries in the whole world, in which many of the non-signatories are landlocked countries, to not sign and ratify UNCLOS as it acknowledges Greek sovereign rights in the Aegean and East Mediterranean.

“Turkey has also violated our sovereign rights by flying over Greece 400 times,” Dendias said, adding “over Greek soil, Mevlüt, over Greek soil.”

“No law permits flying over foreign territory. I’m not referring to the sea,” he added.

Dendias then addressed Turkey’s endless false claim that there is a Turkish minority in Greece.

“About the minority, we’re only saying what the Treaty of Lausanne says, a treaty that Turkey has signed. That’s what the treaty says. Turkey might like it, it might not like it, but the Treaty of Lausanne is in effect, and it will keep being in effect,” he said.

Turkey’s own Foreign Ministry website affirms that there is only a Muslim minority in Greece.

The Treaty of Lausanne Part VI Article 2, as presented on the Turkish Foreign Ministry website, states:

“Moslems established in the region to the east of the frontier line laid down in 1918 by the Treaty of Bucharest shall be considered as Moslem inhabitants of Western Thrace.”

Dendias returned to the discussion of UNCLOS, and stressed that it is “a part of the EU aquis” and that if Turkey truly wants to join the EU as it has claimed in recent days, then it must acknowledge UNCLOS.

“The EU has signed it. It’s not only signed by member states, but also by the Union itself. If Turkey wants to become a member of the EU, then you must abide by the UNCLOS,” he said.

The Greek foreign minister then took aim at migration, lambasting Turkey’s instigated migrant crisis in February and March last year.

“Concerning migration, I honestly believe that after last’s years incidents, Turkey should not try to teach Greece on anything about migration,” he said.

Last year, Turkey manufactured a migrant crisis by transporting tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to the Greek border with the false information that they could now enter the European Union.

The campaign of pressure utterly failed, forcing Turkey to move the illegal immigrants away from the border region as COVID-19 began to spread.

“We are ready, as you also said, to move forward to a new chapter, but that includes the perception of what’s wrong and right. I believe the storming of our border was not the right thing to do,” Dendias said.

“I would like to state that Greece is ready to move to a positive agenda regarding our relations with Turkey,” he continued, adding “That does not mean Greece will change its long-held policies, it does not mean abandoning the EU acquis.

“Please allow me to tell you that the EU Council is not a third party. Greece is an EU member, we are a part of the Council, and have suggested that you join too! It’s not a third party,” he stressed.

“The EU Council is our family, countries which we live together with. These are countries that share the same values with us, countries that have a common vision about the future. A place that protects human rights,” the foreign minister continued.

“I always call it the best example of countries co-existing in the history of mankind,” Dendias stressed.

“Greece is proud to be a part of the EU, proud for the EU’s established rights, we will keep on living according to them,” he said.

The Greek foreign minister then responded to Çavuşoğlu’s demands that the Greek islands be demilitarised.

“We have the army stationed on our islands because there is a threat,” he highlighted. “We don’t want to spend money on the military without a reason.”

“Can anybody say that there is no threat of landing units near our islands?” Dendias questioned.

“If there is no such thing, please notify us,” he added.

“I hope our disagreement did not make you postpone our scheduled dinner because I am really hungry,” Dendias concluded with a smirk.

In fact, Çavuşoğlu was so taken aback by Dendias’ response that he could only mutter out that the Greek foreign minister withdrew from a “positive” dialogue.

“We do not agree on these issues, and despite the consensus we reached on these issues during our meeting, if you come out here and blame Turkey, I will respond,” he added.

Dendias immediately quipped back by saying: “I would be surprised if you were expecting me to be here in Ankara and not express these concerns, as if nothing had happened in the Aegean or eastern Mediterranean.”

In short, Dendias responded to Turkey’s false allegations with facts and international law, highlighted the European values that Turkey defies despite recently claiming it wants to become an EU member, and stressed that Greece will not be intimidated by Turkey.

The Greek foreign minister also set the standards that the EU should be following in its dealings with Turkey, rather than the submissive position it resigns itself too.

Yet again, this is all the less surprising when the EU is headed by the likes of Michel who boys and falters in front of Erdoğan.

Photo of an Armenian soldier resting on a plastic cover in a trench has won the third prize in the Contemporary Issues Singles category at the World Press Photo contest.

The photo titled Resting Soldier was taken by Vaghinak Ghazaryan (AP) in the northeastern part of Syunik, Nerkin Khndzoresk, Armenia, on 31 October 2020 during the second Artsakh War.

Vaghinak Ghazaryan (1974) is an Armenian freelance photographer based in Yerevan.

He graduated from the department of film and photography at the Academy of TV and Radio, Yerevan, Armenia in 2004 and the Art Criticism and Curatorial Studies School at AICA, Armenia in 2011. 

From 2001 to 2003 Ghazaryan worked as a full-time photographer for the Armenpress News Agency.

Ghazaryan has received grants and awards from organizations including the Documentary Photography Production grant from the Open Society Foundations in 2013, the Tatevik- Grand Prix, Tvapatum in 2019 and Stories About Changes at the Media Initiatives Center, Armenia in 2019 among others.

He currently collaborates with 4plus.org Documentary Photography Center and visits documentary and photojournalism online courses organized by Docdocdoc School of Modern Photography.

YEREVAN. – We will present our position in the near future. Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan on Friday told this to reporters in the National Assembly of Armenia, referring to the information that Azerbaijan—a non-member country—has been invited to the EEU intergovernmental session that will take place on April 29 and 30.

Asked whether Armenia could veto Azerbaijan’s participation in this meeting, the deputy PM gave a positive answer. “Of course it is possible. But it is a process within the framework of which the position will be informed,” Grigoryan said.

To the question as to the accuracy of the information of the Russian press that Yerevan has raised the issue of the returning of the Armenian POWs and the unblocking of roads as a precondition for agreeing to Azerbaijan’s participation in the EEU intergovernmental session, the deputy PM responded: “Of course, all the components are being discussed. It is not a veto, it is a matter of agreeing or not agreeing. The issue of agreeing has a formal process which will be completed in the coming days, and I will personally present it to you, where the grounds for the consent or not will be noted.”

To the clarifying question as to whether Armenia has posited the issue of Armenian captives as a precondition, Mher Grigoryan responded: “This process presupposes agreeing on the participation of another country in the session, which does not presuppose any substantive process. The date will simply come and we [Armenia] will say yes or no. As for positing a precondition, for that you have to say to whom we will posit the precondition.”

He added that the issue of Armenian captives in Azerbaijan was being discussed with Russia in a constructive format and expressed the hope that there will be solutions. “If this is another opportunity, that opportunity will be used,” added Mher Grigoryan.

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan announced that he plans to resign in the last 10 days of April, so as June 20 early parliamentary elections can take place, ARMENPRESS reports PM Pashinyan said during parliament-Cabinet Q&A session, answering the question of independent MP Arman Babajanyan.

‘’I plan to resign in the last 10 days of April, after which on the 7^th day election of Prime Minister will take place in line with the standard procedure. I will be nominated candidate for Prime Minister by ‘’My step’’ bloc, since the Constitution says there must be a candidate. The other parties will not nominate any candidate. ‘’My step’’ bloc will not elect me Prime Minister. I will be nominated candidate for Prime Minister’s position for the second time by 1/3 of the faction and again there will be no other candidate and again I will not be elected. The National Assembly will be considered dissolved legally, after which early elections will be called on June 20’’, the PM said.

He added that if anyone will try to maneuver from their political agreements assumed in front of the people, that will be a political suicide.

”My step bloc will elect me Prime Minister, putting an end to any speculation”, the PM said.

A worldwide silent demonstration will be held on April 15 demanding to help return over 300 Armenian POWs and citizens kept in hostage in Azerbaijan following the Artsakh war in October 2020.

In Yerevan, the action will take place at the UN Offices on Thursday, at 12:00, to raise our voices together with human rights activists who take to the streets on the same day in Toronto, Montreal, Berlin, Warsaw, Rome, LA, New York, Geneva, Houston, Paris. 

The government of Azerbaijan denies the fact that hundreds of Armenians are kept in their prisons 6 months after the war, in violation of the Geneva Conventions, as well as in breach of the November 10 trilateral Ceasefire agreement signed between Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan.

HRW has confirmed in a recent article that Azerbaijan is illegally holding hundreds of Armenian POWs. The Stream published an article depicting the torture and violence Armenian citizens face under Azerbaijani captivity. Participants will continue the demonstration and walk to the Russian Embassy calling to enforce Azerbaijan to adhere to the terms of the trilateral agreement in releasing all Armenian hostages and POWs from Azerbaijani captivity.

The demonstrators will carry signs to raise awareness of the breach of the ceasefire agreement by Azerbaijan and the inhumane treatment of the POWs and hostages. The effects of war, including war crimes such as employment of terrorists, taking hostage of POWs, beheadings, and killings of POWs, use of prohibited weapons, killings of civilians, the use of phosphorus bombs in forests, and the shelling and bombing of civilian settlements, have not worn off yet.

By adhering to the terms of the ceasefire agreement, the release of POWs is a detrimental step towards peace-building in the region. Otherwise, the lives of Captives are at risk of being used as negotiation points to grab and occupy more territories that are within the borders of Armenia proper in a process that will continue to cause instability in the region.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesday denied a claim of Onik Gasparyan, the former chief of the army’s General Staff, that the latter called for immediate action to stop the war in Artsakh shortly after it launched on 27 September 2020.

“Today I consider it appropriate to address a number of speculations and questions about the war. We have had misunderstandings during this period. I want to start with the statement made by former Chief of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan on November 17, 2020, that on the fourth day of the war he briefed about our losses during the Security Council meeting and noted that it was necessary to take measures within 2-3 days to stop the war. I would like to responsibly and officially declare from this tribune that this part of Onik Gasparyan’s statement has nothing to do with reality. The then General Staff chief did not say such a thing; there is also an audio recording,” Pashinyan said at the National Assembly.

He noted that the matter concerns the meeting of the Security Council on September 30, where Onik Gasparyan said that “the adversary does not have any advancement, our army is fulfilling its tasks and will continue to do so till the end”.

At the same time, the premier underlined that Onik Gasparyan could not make such a statement on September 30, since in his report at the August 21 Security Council meeting he had assured that “in the direction of Artsakh, with our forces and means we can repel, foil the enemy’s attacks and destroy its units adhering to the “not a single step back” principle.”