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Suicide bomber kills at least 33 in Iraq’s Kirkuk

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February 3, 2013 – 14:27 AMT

A suicide bomber driving a car and gunmen disguised in police uniforms killed at least 33 people in the Iraqi city Kirkuk on Sunday, Feb 3, when they tried to storm the police headquarters, Reuters reported.

It was the third major attack in several weeks in or near the northern city, an ethnically mixed area of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens at the heart of a dispute over oil and land between Baghdad’s central government and the autonomous Kurdistan region.

“A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives hit the entrance of the headquarters and after the blast gunmen in explosive vests attacked with AK47s and grenades, but the guards killed them,” a police official said.

The huge car bomb blast tore into the police directorate’s concrete facade, destroyed cars outside, and left bodies under rubble at nearby government offices. Police said there were at least two gunmen.

Several armed groups are active in Kirkuk, and Sunni Islamist insurgents tied to al Qaeda often attack security forces in an attempt to undermine Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government and stoke sectarian tensions.

Last month a suicide bomber disguised as a mourner killed at least 26 at a funeral at a Shi’ite mosque in the nearby city of Tuz Khurmato, and days earlier a suicide bomber driving a truck killed 25 in an attack on a political party headquarters in Kirkuk, 170 km (105 miles) north of the capital Baghdad.

Armenian Americans protest against hate crimes in Turkey

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February 02, 2013 | 13:36

Armenian American youth – their mouths symbolically covered with red tape – held a silent protest Friday, calling on Congress to reject Turkey’s gag-rule on U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, citing the recent ethnically-motivated attacks against elderly Armenian women in Istanbul as the latest example of the dangerous atmosphere created by Ankara’s denials and ongoing demonization of Armenians, Asbarez reported.

The demonstration, held in front of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, was organized by Armenian Student Association (ASA) members from the across the U.S. along with the Washington, DC “Ani” chapter of the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) Ani chapter and other local youth, to coincide with the nationwide “Stain of Denial” campus protests organized by the All-ASA and supported by the AYF and ARF Shant Student organizations.

UCLA ASA Public Relations Director Knarik Gasparyan, who co-organized the event, explained that the effort attracted Armenian and non-Armenian youth alike, many in WashingtonDC for Capitol Hill internships or semester programs through their colleges and universities. “I want to highlight the fact that many non-Armenian students participated in today’s protest, standing in solidarity with us and supporting our efforts to shed light on the horrific hate crimes and human rights violations in Turkey,” explained Gasparyan. “This once again comes to prove that the cause we fight for and the recognition of the Genocide is not simply an Armenian issue, but of concern to all humanity.”

Protesters carried photos and spotlighted four widely publicized attacks against elderly Armenian women, one fatal, which have taken place over the past two months, in the historically Armenian-inhabited neighborhood of Samatya, in central Istanbul.

Hundreds Protest Horizon’s Proposed Closure

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It’s a David and Goliath Story

GLENDALE—Hundreds of community members gathered in front of Charter Communications offices on Friday to protest the corporate decision to arbitrarily yank Horizon Armenian Television off the air on February 19.

The community members were heeding the call of a citizens’ group, “Save Horizon TV Task Force” and took to the streets to protest this decision, which has rocked the community.

Earlier this month, the management of Horizon Armenian Television was notified by Charter Communications that the channel that has been serving the Armenian community for more than two decades would be yanked off the Charter lineup effective February 19, despite the fact that Horizon signed and delivered a contract for 2013.

The task force is planning a large demonstration Friday, February 8 at 11 p.m. at Charter’s regional headquarters, 4781 Irwindale Avenue, Irwindale, CA 91706. Follow asbarez.com for complete details of this event.

“It is a David and Goliath story,” said Avedik Izmirlian, chairman of the Armenian Media Network board of directors. He explained that Charter Communications, the fourth largest cable operator in the country, wants to stifle Horizon Television, a channel that has been serving the Armenian-American community for almost 25 years.

Izmirlian thanked the protesters for their support for Horizon and urged the community to come together right this wrong and ensure that the community’s voice is not silenced.

Charter officials are wrongfully telling customers that Horizon Television did not sign its contract and are misleading them by absolving Charter of any responsibility, explained Tro Krikorian, a member of the “Save Horizon Television Task Force.”

Krikorian and another task force members entered the Charter offices to demand explanations for the corporation’s actions against this community television channel. Inside, they were by a Charter representative who failed to adequately answer the concern of community representatives.

Deeming this action by Charter as nothing short of bullying a non-profit organization, which is dedicated to service and betterment of the community, the Save Horizon TV Task Force has also initiated an online and print petition drive that has been met with overwhelming support by the community.

In a matter of days there are thousands of responses to the online petition (http://signon.org/sign/save-horizon-nonprofit), which is directed to Charter Communications regional management and the Federal Communications Commission. The paper petition, which was circulated at various community events since Saturday, has also received thousands of signatures.

“Charter is acting in bad faith and violating the principles of a good corporate citizen by ignoring the needs of the community and being insensitive to the customers they serve,” said Zanku Armenian a spokesperson for the Save Horizon TV Task Force. “As a franchisee in Glendale, Burbank and La Crescenta, Charter serves at the pleasure of the citizens of these cities and with their callous actions they are demonstrating they don’t care about their customers.”

Armenian-Americans comprise more than 40 percent of the population in Glendale and La Crescenta and 35 percent of the total population in Burbank—the area covered by Charter Communications that carries Horizon Armenian Television.

Horizon Television was the first Armenian-language channel to become part of the Charter lineup with a 24-hour channel in 1999 and was chosen by the corporation because of its deep roots and its demonstrated service to the community. Horizon Television debuted in May of 1989 with a mission to inform and serve the Armenian-American community. In a short time, Horizon became a broadcast outlet for news and information and evolved into a true voice for the ever-expanding Armenian community. In 1999, Horizon expanded its programming to become the first 24-hour television channel in the Armenian community and since then, by partnering with organizations and businesses alike, it has provided groundbreaking coverage of all things Armenian for its viewers. Horizon is the Armenian language equivalent of the non-profit PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) network on mainstream television.

At least two dead in US Embassy suicide bombing in Ankara

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By Jonathon Burch

ANKARA | Fri Feb 1, 2013 9:09am EST

(Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed a Turkish security guard at the U.S. embassy in Ankara on Friday, blowing the door off a side entrance and sending smoke and debris flying into the street.

Ankara Governor Alaaddin Yuksel said the attacker was inside U.S. property when the explosives were detonated. The blast sent masonry spewing out of the wall of the side entrance, but there did not appear to be any more significant structural damage.

The bomber was also killed.

U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone emerged through the main gate of the building, which is surrounded by high walls, shortly after the explosion to address reporters, flanked by a security detail as a Turkish police helicopter hovered overhead.

“We are very sad of course that we lost one of our Turkish guards at the gate,” Ricciardone he said, thanking the Turkish authorities for a prompt response.

A Reuters witness saw one wounded person being lifted into an ambulance as police armed with assault rifles cordoned off the area.

“It was a huge explosion. I was sitting in my shop when it happened. I saw what looked like a body part on the ground,” said travel agent Kamiyar Barnos whose shop window was shattered around 100 meters away from the blast.

One witness said the blast was audible a mile away.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The British Consulate-General to Turkey said the blast a “suspected terrorist attack”.

Islamist radicals, far-left groups, far-right groups and Kurdish separatist militants have all carried out attacks in Turkey in the past.

The main domestic security threat comes from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), deemed a terrorist group by the United States, European Union and Turkey, but the PKK has focused its campaign largely on domestic targets.

Turkey has led calls for international intervention in neighboring Syria and is hosting hundreds of NATO soldiers from the United States, Germany and the Netherlands who are operating a Patriot missile defense system along its border with Syria, hundreds of kilometers away from the capital.

The U.S. Patriots were expected to go active in the coming days.

The most serious attacks of this kind in Turkey occurred in November 2003, when car bombs shattered two synagogues, killing 30 people and wounding 146. Authorities said the attack bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.

Part of the HSBC Bank headquarters was destroyed and the British consulate was damaged in two more explosions that killed a further 32 people a week later.

(Writing by Nick Tattersall and Daren Butler; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Armenia Presidential Hopeful Shot and Wounded

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By AVET DEMOURIAN Associated Press
YEREVAN, Armenia February 1, 2013 (AP)

A fringe candidate for the Armenian presidency was recovering from surgery Friday after being shot in the chest by an unidentified gunman, officials said. Paruir Airikian was reported in stable condition as police searched for the shooter, while the speaker of Parliament suggested the election could be delayed.

Airikian, an also-ran in three previous presidential elections, was shot outside his house in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, just before midnight. A neighbor who heard gunshots and cries for help called the police.

Another presidential candidate who visited Airikian in hospital told Armenian TV that that the assailant first shot him in the back. Airikian then started struggling with the attacker, who fled.

Airikian, a former dissident who spent 17 years in Soviet prisons, is one of eight candidates in the Feb. 18 presidential vote, which incumbent Serge Sarkisian is expected to easily win despite the nation’s economic problems. Recent opinion surveys show Airikian getting just over 1 percent of the vote.

Yerevan Clinical Hospital’s chief doctor, Ara Minasian, said that the 63-year-old Airikian was being treated for a single gunshot wound and remained in stable condition. Doctors later performed a surgery to remove a bullet that got stuck in his shoulder.

Eduard Sharmazanov, a deputy speaker of Parliament, said the attack on Airikian was a “provocation against democratic, free and transparent elections.” Education Minister Armen Ashotian, who is deputy chief of the ruling Republican Party, described it as an “attempt to destabilize the situation in the country and compromise the vote.”

Armenian parliament speaker Ovik Abramian, who visited Airikian at the hospital, said the assault could be an attempt to thwart the election. He said the vote could be postponed if Airikian’s condition prevents him from taking part, but the nation’s election chief refused to comment on the possibility.

Armenia’s constitution requires the vote to be postponed for two weeks if one of the candidates is unable to take part due to circumstances beyond his control. It envisages a further 40-day delay if the problem isn’t solved.

The Armenian president has broad executive powers, and the campaign for the job has been marked by much tension. Airikian, a Soviet-era dissident, briefly joined a hunger strike by another candidate over procedural issues related to the vote.

This landlocked, overwhelmingly Christian nation of 3 million has faced severe economic challenges caused by the closing of its borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan because of a territorial conflict.

The Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and some adjacent territory has been under the control of Armenian troops and local ethnic Armenian forces since a six-year war ended with a truce in 1994. But international efforts to mediate a settlement have brought no result.

Armenia’s politics have been tense and often mired in violence. In 1999, six gunmen burst into Parliament and killed the prime minister, speaker and six other officials and lawmakers. Nine people were wounded. The attackers said they were driven by a desire to save the country from economic collapse and official corruption. They were sentenced to life in prison and one later committed suicide.

Airikian was a dissident during Soviet times. He was first arrested when he was 20, and spent 17 years in prison, according to his party. In 1987 after Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev launched his liberal reforms, Airikian created the National Self-Determination Party. When the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted next year, he accused the Soviet authorities of stirring up violence and was evicted from the country.

Airikian soon returned to his homeland and took senior positions in Armenia’s parliament and government in the 1990s.

Timbuktu Endured Terror Under Harsh Shariah Law

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By LYDIA POLGREEN
Published: January 31, 2013

TIMBUKTU, Mali — When the Islamist militants came to town, Dr. Ibrahim Maiga made a reluctant deal. He would do whatever they asked — treat their wounded, heal their fevers, bandage up without complaint the women they thrashed in the street for failing to cover their heads and faces. In return, they would allow him to keep the hospital running as he wished.

Then, one day in October, the militants called him with some unusual instructions. Put together a team, they said, bring an ambulance and come to a sun-baked public square by sand dunes.

There, before a stunned crowd, the Islamist fighters carried out what they claimed was the only just sentence for theft: cutting off the thief’s hand. As one of the fighters hacked away at the wrist of a terrified, screaming young man strapped to a chair, Dr. Maiga, a veteran of grisly emergency room scenes, looked away.

“I was shocked,” he said, holding his head in his hands. “But I was powerless. My job is to heal people. What could I do?”

Read More NYT

We know how Armenians were massacred and eradicated in Turkey – Kurdish party leader

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January 30, 2013 | 00:04

The Turkish parliament’s pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Co-Chair Gultan Kisanak severely criticized the recent attacks that were carried out against elderly Armenian women in Istanbul’s densely-Armenian-populated Samatya neighborhood.

She recalled that five Armenian women were assaulted in the past 1.5 months, and one of these attacks had ended tragically, Evrensel daily of Turkey reports.

“During the assault against the 84-year-old Armenian woman, there was money on the table but they did not take it; this proves yet again that the attacks are carried out on grounds of racial hatred.

We know very well how the Armenians in this country were eradicated, subjected to massacres. We know about the still-bleeding wounds of Turkey’s recent past.

The attacks against Armenians are continuing systematically in the past 1.5 months, but neither the police nor the authorities are giving explanations; this is the embarrassment of this country.

We stand with our Armenian citizens. We will never leave them alone,” Kisanak stated.

Turkish studies expert says current atmosphere in Turkey is much alike that in 1915

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Anti-Christian atmosphere is developing in Turkey, in parallel with the improvement of Turkish-Kurdish relations, Turkish studies expert Artak Shakaryan told a news conference, commenting on the attacks of Armenian women committed in recent months in Istanbul.

“It is difficult to say who the killer is, but it is a fact that those killings are instigated by the nationalists,” he said, adding that the current atmosphere in Turkey is much alike that in 1915.

According to the expert, Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party tries to form an internal front not only against the Armenians but also against the entire Christian population so as to please the nationalists and to gain additional political dividends.

Following elderly women, Armenian citizens living illegally in Turkey are in danger, said the Turkish studies expert.

“They cannot apply to anyone for assistance because they know that police will either demand bribes or will deport them to Armenia. Armenian citizens will certainly be the next victims,” said Shakaryan.

CSTO head calls Azerbaijan’s decision to shoot down civilian planes “a ridiculous joke”

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January 29, 2013 | 12:39

YEREVAN.- Secretary General of CSTO Nikolay Bordyuzha labeled Azerbaijan’s decision to down civilian airplanes as “a ridiculous joke”.

Commenting on Azerbaijani government’s decision to shoot down the civilian planes overflying Nagorno-Karabakh, Bordyuzha said it is either misinterpretation or a ridiculous joke.

“I am considering Azerbaijan a civilized state. A state which will be consistent with universal values,” Bordyuzha said answering the question of Armenian News-NEWS.am correspondent.

CSTO Secretary General doubts that leadership of any country will be able to give a command to shoot down a plane intentionally.

“We witnessed such cases in our history. We remember a tragedy in the Far East and the response of the international community. I do not think any state can allow itself to really destroy a civilian aircraft. So, I do not take this information seriously,” he resumed.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am

OSCE mediators meet with Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs

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January 28, 2013 | 17:57

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Jacques Faure of France, and Ian Kelly of the United States of America) met jointly with the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov, and the Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian on Monday.  Also participating in the meeting was the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.

The Co-Chairs continued discussions with the Ministers on the working proposal to advance the peace process, which they submitted to the sides in October 2012.  They also exchanged views on possible confidence building measures, says the statement posted on OSCE website.

The Co-Chairs referred to their statements of April 14, 2011 and July 13, 2012, and discussed with the Ministers issues pertaining to civilian flights to and from the airport in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Foreign Ministers and the Co-Chairs stressed the importance of the OSCE Minsk Group as the framework for negotiating a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.  The Foreign Ministers reiterated their support for a peaceful settlement and their determination to continue negotiations.  The Ministers and the Co-Chairs agreed to a further discussion of the peace process in the coming weeks.