News Archives

BREAKING NEWS: Obama Says U.S. Will Send Up to 300 Military Advisers to Iraq

June 19, 2014 By administrator

NYT President Obama said Thursday that the United States will deploy up to 300 military advisers to Iraq to help beleaguered security forces fend off Sunni militants, edging the United States back into a military conflict that Mr. Obama thought he had left behind.
Mr. Obama also said the United States was gathering intelligence on the positions of militant fighters to identify targets, and said, “We will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action if we conclude the situation on the ground requires it.”
The president emphasized again that he will not send combat troops to Iraq, but he said the United States would help the Iraqis “take the fight” to the militants, who he said pose a threat to Iraq’s stability and to American interests because Iraq could become a sanctuary for terrorists who could strike the United States or its allies.

Gagik Hambaryan: Turkey wants to exterminate Iraq

June 19, 2014 By administrator

Turkey has become active in Iraq and does everything possible to split the Iraqi state de jure, historian and political scientist, Gyumri State Pedagogical Institute lecturer Gagik Hambaryan told a press conference Thursday.

“The Turkish state spares no effort to refute the reports that it supports the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), but there is evidence that this terrorist organization attacked Northern Iraq with the support of the Turkish state,” the historian said.

According to Hambaryan, Iraqi Kurdistan also played a big role in this attack. “Turkey, in agreement with Iraqi Kurdistan, wants to exterminate Iraq.”

Source: Panorama.am

Armenia among top in number of women in senior management

June 19, 2014 By administrator

June 19, 2014 | 02:06

Communism, it turns out, may have been good for women in one regard: A higher percentage of senior managers in companies from countries that were Communist are women than in the U.S. and western Europe.

Market Watch website wrote the aforesaid citing the Grant Thornton International Business Report for 2014.

According to the report, Russia leads the group, with 43 percent of senior-management slots filled by women. It is followed by Latvia with 41 percent, Lithuania with 39 percent Estonia with 37 percent, and Georgia and Armenia with 35 percent apiece. The study says one reason for the high percentage may go back to the promise of equal opportunity for all under the Communists, followed by promotions for women.

By comparison, a below-average 22 percent of senior-management jobs in the U.S. and Spain are held by women. The figure drops to 20 percent in the U.K., 14 percent in Germany and Denmark, 13 percent in Switzerland, and just 10 percent in the Netherlands.

Indeed, European businesses are among those most likely to have no women in their senior teams, according to the study. Some 71 percent of Danish companies do not have any women in their leadership team, followed by Germany with 67 percent.

Genocide Education Act Passes Calif. Senate Committee

June 18, 2014 By administrator

Last genocide survivor passes as Genocide Education is brought to forefront of California curricula

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—On Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee unanimously passed AB 1915, The Armenian Genocide Education Act, with a vote of 7-0. The human rights education measure authored by Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian (D – Sherman Oaks), will require the inclusion of the Armenian Genocide in the list of studied subject areas for the adopted courses of study in Social Science for 7-12. It will also encourage the incorporation of an oral history component into the teaching of human rights, and genocides, including the Holocaust, Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides.

The introduction of this measure comes at a defining point, in not only working towards a more comprehensive curriculum about the Armenian Genocide, but also in having the international community recognize an atrocity that has for too long been overlooked.

With the centennial of the 1915 Armenian Genocide quickly approaching, a very frail few survivors remain to tell their stories from the horrors they experienced during this dark chapter in world history. The passage of AB 1915 out of this committee follows the passing of Nellie Nazarian, the last Armenian Genocide survivor from Merrimack Valley, Massachusetts, reminding us that increased education on the subject is much needed before there are no survivors left. Nellie escaped the massacre in her native village of Chimisgazag by taking refuge in the mountains with her family before immigrating to America in the early 1920’s. “It is important to remember the stories of those who experienced violations to human rights. I hope that the passage of this legislation brings some closure for the remaining survivors of all genocides. To educate our students on the Armenian Genocide, as well as other atrocities that have taken place, will ensure that the innocent did not die in vain. This bill is for the survivors and those who perished.” said Assemblymember Nazarian.

Nellies story joins the thousands which have been thoroughly detailed in documentaries and memoirs describing the suffering experienced by survivors of the Armenian Genocide. Oral Histories will be a vital tool for educators to utilize in strengthening genocide curricula and further raise consciousness of the Armenian Genocide in California’s educational system.

Currently, California is one of 11 states, including Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Virginia, which have the Armenian Genocide included in their curriculum. The California Model Curriculum developed by the Department of Education, includes the Armenian Genocide as a recommended topic to teach. However, schools aren’t required to follow this Model Curriculum.

AB 1915 will be heard next in the Senate Appropriations Committee, then head to the Senate floor for vote.

Armenian, Georgian Presidents Meet over Regional Issues

June 18, 2014 By administrator

TBILISI (ArmRadio)—The consistent reinforcement of close Armenian-Georgian relations is among the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian said at a joint press conference with his Georgian counterpart Giorgi Margvelashvili after their meeting in Tbilisi on Wednesday.

“The fragile peace and stability in the South Caucasus is maintained largely due to the effective and strong cooperation between Armenia and Georgia. We have always respected each other’s decisions, aware that the primary goal of any of us is the strengthening of the state, and have rejoiced over this, as Armenia and Georgia are strong together,” President Sarkisian said.

“The political dialogue is the best impetus for boosting the economic cooperation. Concrete directions have already been outlined in the trade relations between the two counties, which include the energy sector, tourism, manufacturing of agricultural products and others. We have registered growth in the commodity turnover and I’m sure we have large unused reserves,” the President added.

During the meeting in Tbilisi, the leaders of the two countries referred to Armenia’s participation in Eurasian integration processes, particularly the prospects of mutually beneficial cooperation with Georgia in that context.

“I’m confident that by signing the Association Agreement with the EU on June 27 and becoming part of the Free Trade Agreement, Georgia will create opportunities for Armenian businessmen, who see their participation on the European market, to make investments in Georgia,” he said, adding that on the other hand, Armenia’s accession to the Customs Union will open opportunities for Georgian partners in the markets of the CU member states.

As for regional security, the Presidents of the two countries agree that the comprehensive settlement of conflicts is possible exceptionally in a peaceful way in line with the principles of international law.

ISIS ‘WORLD’S RICHEST TERROR GROUP’: REPORTS

June 18, 2014 By administrator

BAGHDAD – The radical group surging through Iraq’s heartland are flush with cash after looting a large bank in an oil-rich hub in the country’s north, making off with nearly half a billion dollars, officials say.

According to the Daily News fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria seized around $450 million from a large bank and plundered large stashes of gold bullion during their sweeping takeover of Mosul this week, the city’s mayor, Athier Nujaifi, told NBC News.

Though exact numbers were difficult to pin down, the stunning windfall appeared to make the Al Qaeda-inspired force the richest terror group in the world, NBC said.

Isis fighters attack Iraq’s biggest oil refinery

June 18, 2014 By administrator

Isis fighters attack Iraq’s biggest oil refinery
Islamist militants launch assault in Baiji as Iran raises prospect of military intervention

by Mark Tran
theguardian.com, Wednesday 18 June 2014 06.19 EDT

The Baiji oil refinery, 155 miles north of Baghdad, is under attack by Isis. Photograph: Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters

Islamist militants have attacked Iraq‘s largest oil refinery in the city of Baiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, as Iran raised the prospect of direct military intervention to protect Shia holy sites.

A top security official told the Associated Press that fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) had begun their attack on the refinery late on Tuesday night. The attack continued into Wednesday morning, with militants targeting it with mortar shells, starting a small fire on the periphery.

The refinery accounts for more than a quarter of the country’s entire refining capacity, all of which goes toward domestic consumption – petrol, cooking oil and fuel for power stations. At the height of the insurgency from 2004 to late 2007, the Baiji refinery was under the control of Sunni militants who used to siphon off crude and petroleum products to finance their operations. Isis has used its control of oilfields in Syria to boost its coffers.

Any lengthy disruption at Baiji risks long lines at the petrol pump and electricity shortages, putting further pressure on the Shia-led government of the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. Iraq’s beleaguered prime minister has fired several top security commanders after Iraqi troops melted away before Isis militants as they captured the Mosul in the north, Iraq’s second largest city.

Jihadi rebel forces have reached Baquba, less than 40 miles north of Baghdad, while fighting continues to rage further north in the city of Tal Afar. State television late on Tuesday aired footage of army troops and armed volunteers disembarking from a transport C-130 aircraft at an airstrip near the city.

Isis and disaffected Sunnis have threatened to march to Baghdad, the capital, and the Shia holy cities of Kerbala and Najaf in the worst threat to Iraq’s stability since US troops left. The three cities are home to some of the most revered Shia sites. Isis has tried to capture Samarra, north of Baghdad, home to another major Shia shrine.

Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, warned that Iran would do whatever it took to protect the shrines.

“Dear Kerbala, Dear Najaf, Dear Kadhimiya and Dear Samarra, we warn the great powers and their lackeys and the terrorists, the great Iranian people will do everything to protect them,” he said, in a speech on Wednesday in Khoramabad, near the Iraqi border.

On Tuesday Rouhani mentioned petitions signed by Iranians who said they were willing to fight in Iraq “to destroy the terrorists and protect the holy sites”, which are visited by hundreds of thousands of Iranian pilgrims annually.

“Thank God there are enough volunteer Shias, Sunnis and Kurds in Iraq to fight the terrorists,” he added.

Thousands of Iranians have volunteered to defend the shrines. Iran is 90% Shia, a group considered to be apostates by Isis and Sunni extremists. Rouhani said on Saturday that Iran had never dispatched any forces to Iraq and it was very unlikely it ever would, but Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was in Baghdad last week to give advice to Maliki.

Amid the fighting, the plight of foreign oil workers has become a concern. The Turkish embassy in Baghdad is investigating reports that a group of Turkish construction workers were among 60 people abducted by militants near Kirkuk. Isis seized 15 Turks who were building a hospital near the town of Dour, in Salahuddin province near Kirkuk.

The reported abduction came a week after 80 other Turkish nationals were seized by insurgents in Mosul, 49 of them from the Turkish consulate, including special forces soldiers, diplomats and children.

The Indian government has not been able to make contact with 40 Indian construction workers in Mosul, with the Times of India reporting that they have been kidnapped.

The foreign ministry spokesman, Syed Akbaruddin, said dozens of Indian workers were living in areas overrun by Isis and India was in contact with many of them, including 46 nurses. The nurses are stranded in Tikrit, which is under militant control, with many of them holed up in the hospital where they work. Nurses who spoke to the Indian media said they had been treating people injured in fierce street fighting.

The White House has indicated that it may be some days away from a decision on any US military intervention as senior Democrats expressed growing caution about the risks of being sucked back in to conflict in the country.

Amid signs that Barack Obama is treading warily over calls for air strikes, the administration spokesman, Jay Carney, said the president would “continue to consult with his national security team in the days to come”, and there would also be further consultations with members of Congress, including some closed briefings later this week.

Turkish Denialists Fail to Block Genocide Speech at Australian Parliament

June 17, 2014 By administrator

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

The Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of Australia had invited this writer to speak at commemorative events in Sydney and Melbourne, and deliver a formal address at the New South Wales Parliament during the week of April 24.

On April 27, the Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance sent a three-page letter to all Parliament members urging them to boycott my presentation. A Parliament member forwarded a copy of the letter to the Armenian National Committee of Australia in advance of my talk on April 29. The cleverly-worded letter, most likely written by the Turkish Embassy’s professional lobbyists, made several false claims and defamatory accusations.

The Turkish denialist group sought to import Ankara’s human rights restrictions to a democratic country like Australia by trying to muzzle not only this speaker’s right to free speech, but also the Parliament’s right to invite whomever it chose. Calling me a ‘propagandist’ who ‘benefits from conflict and hatred,’ the Turkish letter ‘strongly’ advised Parliament members not to attend my talk.

Gunes Gungor, Executive Director of the Australian Turkish Alliance, falsely reported that I am ‘related’ to Hampig Sassounian, simply because I shared his last name. Hampig was convicted of assassinating the Consul General of Turkey in Los Angeles in 1982. While the life of any human being is precious, Gungor sheds crocodile tears over the death of a single Turkish diplomat, ignoring the wholesale killings of 1.5 million innocent Armenians! How would Gunes Gungor like it if I were to accuse him of being related to several criminals I found on the internet, just because they shared the same last name?

Gungor in his letter also badmouthed the distinguished jurist Raphael Lemkin who coined the term ‘genocide’ based on his detailed studies of the extermination of Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish government. In a desperate search for any reason to tarnish Lemkin’s impeccable reputation, Gungor claimed that “towards the end of the meetings because of his aggressive comments he [Lemkin] was asked to leave the room.” Gungor did not even know how to spell Lemkin’s first name.

The Turkish propagandist finally attempted to draw a distinction between the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. After pretending to be an expert on the Armenian Genocide, Gungor confessed his ignorance by stating that “much about the late Ottoman Empire has yet to be learned and many conclusions have yet to be drawn.”

Despite Gungor’s attempts to undermine my address, Parliament members and guests, including scholars, elected officials, and Jewish community leaders gave me a standing ovation. Surprisingly, Gungor showed up at the Parliament to hear me speak, not trusting his own ability to have the event cancelled. While members of the audience were given ample time to ask any question they wished, Gungor and his two Turkish colleagues did not ask a single question. More surprisingly, as the three Turks were leaving the Parliament hall, one of Gungor’s colleagues was overheard saying, “on nights like these, I wonder what we are doing here!”

My other talks took place with packed audiences without disruption. According to the ANC of Australia over 1,100 people attended my first talk on April 24 in Sydney. I gave a second talk the next night in the same city. I then spoke at a similar event on April 27 in Melbourne at the presence of around 500 guests.

The only sour note during my journey was Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s message sent to the Sydney commemoration. Taking a page from Pres. Obama’s playbook, Abbott used every other word (horror, tragedy, terrible events, lost lives) except for genocide in his brief message. Vache Kahramanian, Executive Director of the ANC of Australia, wrote to the Prime Minister, telling him that his message will not be read to the audience because it is “of great insult to the Armenian-Australian community with its blatant omission of the Genocide word.” Kahramanian reminded the Prime Minister of his previous year’s message while he was opposition leader in which he had properly characterized the Armenian Genocide. In contrast to the Prime Minister, Australia’s Treasurer, Joe Hockey, the country’s most senior government minister, issued a formal statement clearly acknowledging the Armenian Genocide.

I left Australia greatly impressed with the political activism of the Armenian community of 50,000 which runs circles around the much larger Turkish community of over 200,000.

Iraq’s Maliki defies call to reach out, accuses Saudis of ‘genocide

June 17, 2014 By administrator

BAGHDAD – Reuters

Iraq’s Shiite rulers defied Western calls on June 17 to reach out to Sunnis to defuse the uprising in the north of the country, declaring a boycott of Iraq’s main Sunni political bloc and accusing Sunni power Saudi Arabia of promoting ‘genocide.’

Washington has made clear it wants Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to embrace Sunni politicians as a condition of U.S. support to fight a lightning advance by forces from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

But Maliki has moved in the opposite direction, announcing a crackdown on politicians and officers he considers “traitors” and lashing out at neighbouring Sunni countries for stoking militancy.

The latest target of his government’s fury was Saudi Arabia, the main Sunni power in the Gulf, which funds Sunni militants in neighbouring Syria but denies it is behind ISIL.

“We hold them responsible for supporting these groups financially and morally, and for the outcome of that – which includes crimes that may qualify as genocide: the spilling of Iraqi blood, the destruction of Iraqi state institutions and historic and religious sites,” the Iraqi government said of Riyadh in a statement.

Maliki has blamed Saudi Arabia for supporting militants in the past, but the severe language was unprecedented. On Monday Riyadh blamed sectarianism in Baghdad for fuelling the violence.

In the latest bloodshed, scores of Iraqis were killed on Tuesday during a battle for a provincial capital, and fighting shut the country’s biggest oil refinery, starving parts of the country of fuel and power.

Government forces said they repelled an attempt by insurgents to seize Baquba, capital of Diyala province north of Baghdad, in fighting overnight. Some residents and officials said the dead included scores of prisoners from the local jail. There were conflicting accounts of how they had died.

ISIL fighters who aim to build a Caliphate across the Iraqi-Syrian frontier launched their revolt by seizing the north’s main city, Mosul, last week and swept through the Tigris valley towards Baghdad.

The fighters, who consider all Shiites to be heretics deserving death, pride themselves on their brutality and have boasted of massacring hundreds of troops who surrendered.

Most Iraqi Sunnis abhor such violence, but nevertheless the ISIL-led uprising has been joined by other Sunni factions, including former members of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party and tribal figures, who share widespread anger at perceived oppression by Maliki’s government.

UN chief warns of massive scale violence

Western countries, including the United States, have urged Maliki to reach out to Sunnis to rebuild national unity as the only way of preventing the disintegration of Iraq.

“There is a real risk of further sectarian violence on a massive scale, within Iraq and beyond its borders,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on June 17. “I have been urging Iraqi government leaders including Prime Minister al-Maliki to reach out for an inclusive dialogue and solution of this issue.”

But the long-serving prime minister, who won an election two months ago, seems instead to be relying more heavily than ever on his own sect, who form the majority in Iraq.

Hassan Suneid, a close Maliki ally, said on June 17 the governing Shi’ite National Alliance should boycott all work with the largest Sunni political bloc, Mutahidoon.

“It is not possible for any bloc inside the National Alliance to work with Mutahidoon bloc due to its latest sectarian attitude,” he told a TV channel of Maliki’s party.

The sudden advance by Sunni insurgents has the potential to scramble alliances in the Middle East, with the United States and Iran both saying they could cooperate against a common enemy, all but unprecedented since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Iran, the leading Shiite power, has close ties to Maliki and the Shi’ite parties that have held power in Baghdad since U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. But although both Washington and Tehran are close allies of Baghdad, they have not cooperated in the past.

Refinery shut

Iraqi officials confirmed that the Baiji refinery north of Baghdad had shut down, although they said government troops still held the vast compound. Foreign workers were evacuated by Iraqi government helicopters.

With the refinery shut, Iraq will have difficulty generating electricity and pumping water to sustain its cities in summer. There were already reports of queues for fuel in the north.

During the U.S. occupation, the refinery stayed open, and the threat to it shows how much more vulnerable Iraq is now to insurgents than it was before Washington pulled out troops.

Tens of thousands of Shiites have rallied at volunteer centres in recent days, answering a call by the top Shiite cleric to defend the nation. Many recruits have gone off to train at Iraqi military bases.

But with the million-strong regular army abandoning ground despite being armed and trained by the United States at a cost of $25 billion, the government is increasingly relying on extra-legal Shiite militia to fight on its behalf, re-establishing groups that fought during the 2006-2007 bloodletting.

The battle lines are now formalising, with the insurgents held at bay about an hour’s drive north of Baghdad and just on the capital’s outskirts to the west.

State television said Iraqi security forces repelled attacks on three neighbourhoods overnight in Baquba, capital of Diyala, an ethnically and religiously mixed province that saw some of the worst violence of the 2003-2011 U.S. occupation.

Militants also attacked a northern Iraqi village, called Basher, 15 kilometers south of Kirkuk, inhabited by Shiite ethnic Turkmen. They were repelled, police said.

Kirkuk itself has been taken by forces from the autonomous Kurdish region. In a further sign of ethnic and sectarian polarisation, Maliki allies have accused the Kurds of colluding with Sunnis to dislodge government forces in the north.

The mainly Turkmen city of Telafer, west of Mosul, fell to Sunni militants late on June 15, and the Iraqi military said it was sending reinforcement there. The Iraqi army said on state television it had killed a top militant, named Abu Abdul Rahman al-Muhajir, in Mosul in clashes.

June/17/2014

Syria Kessab photos and news after liberated

June 16, 2014 By administrator

The first images of Kessab after the disaster that has affected the Armenian population.

Damascus, June 15, 2014 7:30 p.m. (AFP) – The Syrian army has taken over the city Sunday to Armenian majority Kassab (northwest) and a strategic border crossing with Turkey, nearly three months after they fell into the hands rebels.

“Units of our armed forces, in collaboration with the forces (paramilitary) national defense restored the safety and security Kassab this morning,” the military said in a statement, confirming earlier data by television information State.

State television broadcast images then one of its journalists speaking from the border post. The chain has also accused Qatar and Turkey, supporters of the rebellion, have provided the “terrorists” (the rebels in the language of the plan) ambulances to evacuate their wounded.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH) were reported Saturday evening that “most of the fighters of al-Nosra Front and Islamic brigades had retreated Kassab, leaving behind a small number of fighters.”

Sunday, the NGO said the army had entered the city controlled by the rebels since March 21, but fighting continued. “The regime’s troops came to Kassab but have not taken the entire city. Fighting still oppose soldiers and rebels who remained, “said AFP Director of OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahman.

The withdrawal of most of the rebels came after “the army, supported by the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah fighters, was able to take the hills surrounding Kassab,” said Abdel Rahman. “This put the rebels in the line of sight of the army and Hezbollah,” said he added.

“There was a lack of supply and an advanced highly experienced Hezbollah and the Syrian special forces fighters,” said Abdel Rahman yet.

“The insurgents did not want to be besieged Kassab” by the army, as was the case in several localities rebels brought to their knees by the army in three years of war. “They preferred to withdraw.” Constantly bombarded by regime forces, the border post Kassab was important for the insurgents who were carrying their wounded in Turkey, an ally of the opposition.

The Syrian regime accused Ankara of aiding the rebels seize the city, whose inhabitants Armenian majority have fled their homes since March.