Gagrule.net

Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide

3 Kurdish Women Assassinated in Paris

By

PARIS (Combined Sources)—Three Kurdish women were shot dead in Paris in killings that appeared politically motivated, police and other sources said Thursday.

The bodies of the women were found at the Information Center of Kurdistan, a police source said. The center has close links to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The dead include Sakine Cansiz, one of the co-founders of the PKK, currently in negotiations with Ankara to establish a cease fire. The two others victims were Kurdistan National Committee (KNC) representative and head of the Kurdish institute Fidan Dogan, and activist Leyla Soylemez.

The French interior minister Manuel Valls said the three were “summarily executed.”

“There is no doubt this was politically motivated,” center employee Berivan Akyol told French broadcaster iTele.

Firat reported that two of those killed were shot in the head and one in the stomach, and that the murder weapon was believed to have been fitted with a silencer.

“A couple of colleagues saw blood stains at the door. When they broke the door open and entered they saw the three women had been executed,” French Kurdish Associations Federation Chairman Mehmet Ulker was quoted as saying by Firat.

Turkish broadcasters cited police as saying the women had links to the PKK.

The Turkish government and the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan on Tuesday agreed on a framework for a plan to end the Kurdish-Turkish conflict envisioning Kurdish disarmament in exchange for increased minority rights, the Turkish Radikal reported.

The newspaper said senior intelligence officials had held meetings with PKK chief Abdullah Ocalan in his island jail near Istanbul, yielding a four-stage plan to halt the conflict.

Turkish snake oil salesman leaders are turning to jailed leader of a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to Resolve Kurdish Conflict

By

ISTANBUL (Reuters)—The Turkish government and the jailed leader of a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have agreed on the framework for a plan to end a war that has killed 40,000 people since 1984, envisaging rebel disarmament in exchange for increased minority rights, a newspaper said on Tuesday.

The Radikal daily said senior intelligence officials had held meetings with PKK chief Abdullah Ocalan in his island jail near Istanbul, yielding a four-stage plan to halt the conflict.

Previous negotiations with the PKK were highly secretive and appeared to have run aground. The open acknowledgment of the latest contact has raised hopes for a renewed peace effort, including from the main pro-Kurdish party in parliament.

“Meeting with Ocalan…is a correct step, it’s logical and appropriate,” Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) leader Selahattin Demirtas told members of his party in the assembly in Ankara.

“Peace in Turkey can only begin with this step.”

Radikal said that after an initial end to hostilities the PKK fighters would withdraw from Turkish territory, after which disarmament talks would begin, before a final process of the militants laying down their weapons.

Ocalan will prepare four letters setting out his vision for a solution to the conflict to be addressed to the BDP, to the PKK commanders in northern Iraq, to Europe, where many PKK activists are based, and to the Turkish public, Radikal said.

The “roadmap” would involve releasing from custody thousands of people accused of PKK links.

It would also lead to constitutional reforms removing obstacles to Kurdish language education, strengthening local administrations and an ethnically neutral definition of citizenship, describing people as citizens of Turkey rather than Turkish citizens.

There was no official confirmation of any agreement and Radikal did not specify its sources but it is generally regarded as being reliable on the Kurdish issue.

Ocalan’s demands appeared to be limited, with no references to an independent Kurdistan, a federation or the concept of “democratic autonomy” which has been proposed by Kurdish politicians, according to the report.

While there was cautious optimism regarding the prospect of negotiations in Ankara, violence continued in the southeast.

Fourteen PKK fighters and a Turkish soldier were killed overnight after a group of militants, located in northern Iraq some 8 km (5 miles) from the border, opened fire on a military outpost, the local governor’s office said.

Demirtas said Ocalan, held on the island of Imrali since his capture, had shown a determination to work towards peace but that progress would depend on the government.

His own party, which is popular in the mainly Kurdish southeast, should be involved in any talks, Demirtas added.

PKK Demands Access To Ocalan
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has played down the concessions which Turkey would make to end the conflict, ruling out the prospect of Ocalan being released from Imrali and placed under house arrest or a general amnesty.

Erdogan is under pressure to stem the violence, Turkey’s main domestic security concern, particularly with presidential elections due in 2014 in which he is expected to stand.

From his prison cell, Ocalan has not been able to express his views on the process directly as he has not had access to his lawyers for 16 months, although he has had a meeting with Kurdish politicians.

The main opposition CHP party expressed support for the process for the sake of ending the bloodshed but said parties in parliament needed to work together to achieve a solution.

The leader of the nationalist MHP was fierce in his criticism of the state talks with the “Imrali monster”.

“Prime Minister Erdogan has crossed a threshold and dropped the government’s anchor in the bloody port of separatist terror,” the MHP’s Devlet Bahceli told his deputies.

There was a cautious response from senior PKK commander Murat Karayilan in northern Iraq, who said the active PKK leadership must be given direct access to Ocalan himself.

“The (PKK) armed forces are what is fundamentally important. For that reason we must have direct dialogue with the leader,” Karayilan said in an interview with a news agency close to the militants.

“There is the problem of convincing the broad command structure and fighters, not just the leadership,” he said.

Attackers tattooed cross on brutally killed Istanbul Armenian woman?

By

January 09, 2013 | 12:25

ISTANBUL. – The December 28, 2012 killing of Istanbul Armenian Marissa Kucuk was covered by the Turkish media as a brutal murder, but it was not a front-page news. The Istanbul Armenian community is deeply concerned over this incident and expects an explanation from the officials, writes Rober Koptas, the chief editor of Istanbul’s Agos Armenian bilingual weekly.

As per Koptas, at first look this murder seems to be one of the dozens of killings that take place every day in Turkey. But this was the second attack against an Armenian at the same district and in the past one month.

Reflecting on the premise that the 85-year-old woman was killed for being Armenian, Agos’ chief editor posed a number of questions:

Is it true that the attackers tattooed a cross on Kucuk’s body? Will the forensic medical examiners, or the Police, provide a clarification on this matter?

Was the attack against the two Armenian woman, and after a short interval, unplanned?

If both cases are linked to robbery, why were they accompanied with cruelties?

If they are noting that the perpetrators took the jewelry which these women were wearing, did they steal anything else from the homes, or did the robbery just cover up the true motive of the crime?

Rober Koptas demands that the officials provide clarifications to these queries.

ANCA Welcomes 113th Congress

By

WASHINGTON—The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) team was up on Capitol Hill today to welcome the over 90 newly elected members of the U.S. Senate and House, as Congress kicked off its 113th Session.

ANCA Government Affairs Director Kate Nahapetian and ANCA San Francisco-Bay Area Chairman Armen Carapetian were among those reaching out to old Congressional friends and welcoming new Members, as the new session was launched at noon on January 3rd.

“A new Congress gives Armenian Americans across the U.S. the opportunity to expand our ties with longtime advocates and foster new relationships with recently elected officials on the full array of our community views and values – from justice for the Armenian Genocide and self-determination for Artsakh to a stronger U.S-Armenia relationship, economic development in Javakhk and efforts to assist the beleaguered Christian Armenian community in Syria,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.    “We welcome the Congress back to Washington – veterans and freshmen alike – and look forward to working with each legislator to help ensure a productive session on the full range of our community concerns.”

The new Congressional session also ushers in new Committee leadership in many cases, including the powerful Senate and House committees dealing with foreign affairs. President Obama’s nomination of Senator John Kerry (D-MA), a longtime supporter of Armenian issues, as Secretary of State will open the door for long-time friend Robert Menendez (D-NJ) to chair that influential committee.  Sen. Dick Lugar’s (R-IN) defeat in the 2012 primary opens the door for Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) to serve as Ranking Republican. On the House side, Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Ed Royce (R-CA) will chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee, with Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), a longstanding supporter of Armenian issues, serving as Ranking Democrat.

Among those returning to Congress was Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL), who marched up the steps of the Capitol today after a valiant recovery from a stroke suffered in 2012.  Prior to his election to the Senate, Kirk served as Co-Chair of the Congressional Armenian Caucus during his years in the U.S. House.

Browse photos from events surrounding the kickoff of the 113th Congress

Turkish Parliamentarians Argue Over Who Killed Armenians

By

ANKARA (Armenian Weekly)—Members of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey argued over who killed the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, Turkish newspapers reported on Jan. 3.

“Your history is a history of massacres. You know very well how the grandparents of those who are struggling today were killed,” said parliamentarian Sirri Sakik (Mush), from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, according to the Turkish newspaper Radikal.

In the ensuing argument, parliamentarian Yusuf Halacoglu, from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) party, addressed Kurdish members of the National Assembly asking, “Then tell me frankly—and I, in turn, will show you all the documents—who killed the Armenians?”

Halacoglu is the former director of the Turkish Historical Society.

Other members of parliament pointed to massacres committed against Kurds, while parliamentarians from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) argued that it is the Kurdish guerilla group PKK that has committed atrocities in Turkey, and that Turkish history is genocide-free.

Nurettin Canikli, head of AKP parliamentary group said, “There is no massacre, genocide, and assimilation in this nation’s history.”

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev Named Most Corrupt ‘Person of the Year’ (OCCRP)

By

BUCHAREST—Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has won the first ever Organized Crime and Corruption Person of the Year bestowed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

The award is given for the person who figured prominently in 2012 on stories on crime and corruption in its coverage area.  Aliyev was chosen because of new revelations this year about how his family had taken large shares in lucrative industries including the telecom, minerals and construction industries often through government related deals.

The award is chosen by 60 reporters and 15 news organizations that make up the OCCRP consortium. Runners-up included Albanian drug lord Naser Kelmendi, President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“2012 was a banner year for those of us who cover organized crime and corruption,” said OCCRP editor Drew Sullivan. “It’s a growth industry around the world and we expect a lot of work next year as well.”

OCCRP, based in Sarajevo and Bucharest, is a non-profit, consortium of independent investigative centers, media outlets and investigative journalists from 20 countries.  Its purpose is to educate readers worldwide on how organized crime and corruption works. Click here to read the full report (OCCRP).

Kurdish Youth Festival, January 4,5,6 San Diego CA.

By

I encourage all Armenian youth to attend the Kurdish youth festival, it is a great place to get accounted and understand the Kurdish culture..

Wally Sarkeesian

For the fourth year in a row, the Kurdish Youth Festival is bringing together a diverse group of people from all over the United States for a three-day long event filled with culture, education, and social activities. Of course, it would not be a Kurdish festival without a big party to practice your helperke skills!

What’s new this year?
We will have a dance workshop, so you are guaranteed to be able to dance to whatever music is playing, and a much more elaborate Kurdish Trivia Game! If you like the more cerebral aspects of the festival, we are excited to tell you there will be plenty of brain candy to go around. This year, we will have round-table discussion in topics ranging from Kurdish women’s social challenges in the US, the message and effects of Miss Kurdistan, and the status of the so called “Kurdish-American leadership and the Kurdish vote”.

While you count down the days, check back from time to time to see the updated list of the marvelous program we are putting together. We really hope to see you there, so please take the time to register in order for us to best accommodate you (psssst, you will get a bonus for advanced registration!). So come over, make new friends, absorb the culture, and have a blast!

http://kurdishyouthfestival.org/

 

British MP Helen Goodman: Media workers are persistently defamed and persecuted in Azerbaijan

By

TheyWorkForYou.com website has published an article on Azerbaijan by British MP Helen Goodman. We present it completely.

At the beginning of November, I went to Baku to attend the UN internet governance forum, and I was taken there by Nominet—I wish to put on record my thanks for its generosity.

It might seem strange for the United Nations to hold an internet governance forum in Azerbaijan. The internet is one of the most free means of communication—it was instrumental in facilitating recent political uprisings during the Arab spring—but unfortunately the same cannot be said in Azerbaijan. Before discussing the human rights situation, I wish to take a moment to describe this country on the Caspian. It is a very beautiful, wild and mountainous country in the Caucasus. At no point in its history has Azerbaijan been a liberal democracy, so unfortunately it has no such traditions to recover. From 1805 to 1991, it was part of the Russian empire, latterly of course in the Soviet Union. In fact, it was in Baku that the Tsars imprisoned Stalin. In the last 20 years, the country has prioritised rapid economic development, based on its substantial oil and gas reserves. It is, I am afraid to say, the spiritual home of the 4×4, and it has an unresolved conflict with its neighbour, Armenia.

That context may explain the human rights situation in Azerbaijan, but it certainly does not excuse it. This year, Azerbaijan has played host to two major international events. The first, as many people are aware, was the Eurovision song contest. The second was the UN internet governance forum that I attended. Those two events should have been an opportunity for Azerbaijan to step forward and open up. Unfortunately, the opposite seems to have happened, with the authorities clamping down even more aggressively on journalists and critics of the regime.

At the moment, Baku is plastered with huge posters of President Aliyev, whose father—incidentally—was also president. Most people, when they have photographs taken for political purposes, choose ones that are flattering. Unfortunately, I found President Aliyev’s 6-foot-wide grin more of a crocodile smile.

The petty reality of life in an autocracy was brought home to me on the first morning when all the traffic on the motorway was held up for 20 minutes to allow the official motorcade to pass through, but the problems are far more serious than that. One might expect a Government who are trying to impress the rest of the world to be on their best behaviour, but while I was there the authorities continued to jam the BBC television channel.

While I was there, the authorities continued to jam the BBC television channel and they held the trial of Avaz Zeynalli, who was accused of criticising the regime. The evidence was claimed to have been videoed, but neither the defendant nor his lawyer were shown the film. Finally, they hacked into the computer of Neelie Kroes’s staff while she attended the conference.

There is a long history of violence against journalists in Azerbaijan, which is documented by the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, an Azeri non-governmental organisation. According to the institute, in 2005, Elmar Huseynov, the editor of Monitor, was gunned down in Baku. In 2011, Rafiq Tagi, a critic of Iran and the impact of Islam on Azerbaijan, was stabbed and subsequently died. The level of intolerance is well illustrated by the case of Agil Khalil, who was assaulted and stabbed after investigating reports of trees being burned in an olive grove. In April this year, Idrak Abbasov was attacked by employees of the state oil company of Azerbaijan while filming the destruction of residential properties near an oil field outside Baku. He was beaten unconscious and was in hospital for a month. It is thought that he may have been targeted for exposing human rights abuses in the run-up to the Eurovision song contest. In fact, three weeks previously, he had received The Guardian journalism award at the Index on Censorship freedom of expression awards here in London. There is then the case of Khadija Ismayilova, who I met at the IGF. She had previously worked for Radio Free Europe. Her flat was bugged and a sex video of her, which was filmed secretly, was posted on the internet.

Amnesty International has asked, in particular, that I raise the case of Mehmen Hoseynov, who is facing five years in prison. He is accused of hooliganism for filming a protest on 21 May. Will the Minister raise his case with the Government of Azerbaijan and call for all charges against him to be dropped immediately and unconditionally? Index on Censorship is also concerned about the cases of Minas Sargsyan, Hilal Mamedov, Anar Bayramli, Jamal Ali and Faramaz Novruzoglu. I have e-mailed the Minister with the details of their cases, rather than detaining the House with the long stories attached to them, so that his office can look into them.

Those cases are not isolated incidents; they are part of a systematic repression of free speech in Azerbaijan. In Azerbaijan, defamation is a criminal offence. Media workers are persistently defamed and persecuted. Azerbaijan is the top jailer of journalists in Europe and Central Asia. Index on Censorship estimates that there are currently 70 political prisoners in Azerbaijani jails. Freedom of expression, assembly and association are limited.

French MP Valérie Boyer initiates new Genocide bill

By

December 28, 2012 – 19:59 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – French MP Valérie Boyer initiated a new draft law on criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial.

The bill, dated December 19, stipulates for introduction of amendments to the 1881 law on freedom of press, setting legal foundation for countering racism and denial of Genocide.

The bill envisages a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for denial of crimes against humanity, including the Armenian Genocide, Nouvelles d’Arménie said.

On January 23, the French Senate passed the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide. The bill envisaged imposing a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.

Later, the French Constitutional Council ruled that a bill adopted by the French Senate making it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide was anti-constitutional.

In July, French President Francois Hollande confirmed plans for a new law criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide with representatives of the Armenian community.

World figures, celebrities flock to Marrakech for New Year celebrations

By

By Khadija el-Fathi Al Arabya

Former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni, accompanied by their daughter Julia are expected to open their a palace that he has newly bought in Marrakech. (AFP)

Prominent global figures and celebrities are flocking to Morocco’s resort city of Marrakech for New Year Celebrations, according to local media reports, which said the security in the “red city” has been exceptionally beefed up.

Former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni, accompanied by their daughter Julia, will not stay in the royal Moroccan “J’nan Esssabil” residence like last year, because the former “Elysée Palace” resident has chosen to inaugurate his palace that he has newly bought in Marrakech; thus it will be a double celebration for him.

Sources told AlArabiya.net that Sarkozy bought this $ 3 million luxurious residence in the atlas Nakhil resort area, adding that Sarkozy will celebrate the New Year surrounded by his family who is living in the old Red city.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has chosen the city of Marrakech to spend a recovery period from her recent illness.

Moroccan media reports charge that Hillary has a sister married to a Moroccan man who lives “al-Haouz” area, in the suburbs of Marrakech. Al Arabiya cannot verify the reports.

The family of the late artist Salvador Dali will in turn visit some members of the family residing in the al-Atiqa (old) town. Moreover, many star athletes and actors will spend this time of the year in their own houses in this city, like for instance the French and Moroccan comedy actor Jamel Debbouze.

World Football starts are also expected in the city; these include FC Barcelona teammates Andres Iniesta and Xavier Fernandes and French football star Zinedine Zidane and Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema and his former colleague in the same team Lassana Diara.

Some of the stars chose to visit the city in the strictest confidentiality via private jets, because they want to spend time in an intimate atmosphere away from the paparazzi’s cameras.

The former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who grew up in the city of Agadir, has arrived with his new Moroccan companion, Maryam al-Ofir to al-Nakhil City to spend the end of the year holidays. Many eminent figures from the Levant arrived to Morocco too.

At the local level, the representative of the diplomatic corps in Morocco heads to Marrakesh to celebrate the New Year, and on top of them is Britain’s ambassador in Rabat, which will be received in art Riad, owned his millionaire compatriot Richard Porson who also owns Virgil Airlines Company.

According to Al Arabiya sources, most of those who go to Marrakesh are keen on celebrating in private parties, with Moroccan-flavored dishes and music, especially with the folklore known as “Shaykhet”.

The New Year celebrations brought back the joy to this touristic city, and it relatively reduced the crisis that the country has witnessed during the year, in which the booking ratio has reached 46 percent.

In an interview with Al Arabiya, the responsible of the communication in the regional council of Marrakech, Latif Abu Risha, said that the number of tourists who visited the city from the beginning to the end of 2012 will reach 1.5 million tourists.