Gagrule.net

Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide

Indian director to make film about Armenian Genocide?

By

October 15, 2012 | 15:45

Famous Indian director Shekhar Kapur says he may make a film about the Armenian Genocide, india.nydailynews.com reports.

“Going to Armenia to study massacre of Armenians in 1915 and perhaps make a film on it later. Going toYerevan. Is there an Armenian community in India?” he tweeted.

“I am just going to Yerevan to explore the possibilities of making a film,” he added.

Kapur became famous after shooting Hindi language movie Bandit Queen. Kapur’s Elizabeth starring Cate Blanchett was nominated in 7 categories in the 71st Academy Awards.

AIR Armenia okayed Syria-bound plane’s landing in Turkey

By

October 15, 2012 – 16:21 AMT

Armenian airplane carrying humanitarian assistance to Syria made a scheduled landing in Turkey, director of AIR Armenia CJSC said.

As Arsen Avetisyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, the planes carrying cargo to Syria must be granted permit for operating flights in the Turkish airspace.

“We received the permission with one precondition: the plane must land in one of the Turkish airports for cargo search,” he said, adding that company itself gave consent to landing at Erzurum airport.

Earlier, Turkey ordered an Armenian plane flying to the Syrian city of Aleppo to land on Monday, October 15 and authorities were searching its cargo, as Ankara steps up efforts to prevent its air space being used to supply the Syrian military, Reuters reported.

Turkey had previously been informed the plane, which was forced to land in the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum, would be carrying humanitarian aid and Armenian officials knew it would be searched, an official from the Turkish prime minister’s office said.

The plane would be allowed to continue on its journey if nothing else was found, a Turkish foreign ministry official said.

Turkey forced down a Syrian airliner travelling from Moscow last Wednesday and said it was carrying Russian munitions destined for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military, infuriating Moscow and Damascus.

Russia has said there were no weapons on the plane and that it was carrying a legal cargo of radar. But it moved to cool friction with Ankara – Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the incident would not hurt “solid” relations.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said over the weekend Turkish air space had been closed to Syrian planes. Syria has also banned Turkish planes from flying over its territory.

If Armenian Genocide was condemned we would not have to recognize Holocaust – Slovak judge

By

October 13, 2012 | 19:30

Chairman of Slovakian Supreme Court Štefan Harabin is confident that France will finally adopt a law penalizing Armenian Genocide denial.

Not only France but other European states as well will raise the question of the Armenian Genocide sooner or later, he said in an interview with Golos Armenii newspaper.

“We will have to return to the issue regardless of economic and political interests. During my meeting with journalists in Saint Petersburg I also spoke about the Armenian Genocide,” he said. “If Genocide was condemned after the World War I, we would not have to recognize and condemn the Holocaust after the World War II.”

Sibel Edmonds on RT- For War with Syria: Need Ignition? Let’s Just Make it Up, Cook it Up, Set it Up!

By

My Brief Interview on RT- For War with Syria: Need Ignition? Let’s Just Make it Up, Cook it Up, Set it Up!

Saturday, 13. October 2012 by Sibel Edmonds
‘NATO, Turkey seek pretense for attack on Syria’

Yesterday I was on RT for a brief interview on the recent developments in the long-ago-planned US war on Syria. As I mentioned during the interview, Boiling Frogs Post was one of the first news sites reporting on those long-ago-conceived and planned operations targeting Syria:

11 months ago, in November 2011 I reported on the Secret US-NATO Training and Support Camp in Turkey to Oust Syria’s Assad.

On December 11, 2011, Boiling Frogs Post broke the story on US Troops Deploying on Jordan-Syrian Border.

In mid-December 2011 we had a brief analysis of Turkey’s Sudden 180 Degree Turn on Syria

In December 2011, we had a follow-up on US Government-Mainstream Media collusion in obscuring all reporting on Syria here.

And this is one of my RT interviews on Syria from last year: Click Here

Anyway, These links provide some background for what I emphasized during my interview with RT yesterday, and here is the video clip:

Azerbaijan sends terrorists to Afghanistan?

By

October 11, 2012 | 14:43

Azerbaijani media spread reports confirming that Azerbaijan is sending terrorist to hotbeds of tension around the globe.

Vesti.az posted a video of an explosion in a military base of international coalition forces in Afghanistan on November 21, 2008. One of the suicide bombers is speaking in Azerbaijani.

The video obtained by APA agency shows that mujahid Abu Omar Lezgi announces he struggled for Islam and declared holy war against the US forces. The terrorist drives his truck with 3 tones of explosive in the direction of a military base in Host province of Afghanistan. The blast killed the terrorist and 40 American servicemen.

The mujahideens filmed every minute of the explosion and the incidents that happened before it. The man tells where explosive was made, pointing at a military base in the map. His citizenship and real name are not reported. However, he is speaking only in Azerbaijani.

Armenian National Security Service exposes Azerbaijan’s provocation attempt

By

October 10, 2012 | 12:11

YEREVAN. – The Armenian National Security Service (NSS) exposed and prevented yet another provocation attempt by Azerbaijan’s special services.

Uzbekistan citizen but ethnic Tajik Zamirzhon Otazhonov (born in 1979) had applied to Armenia’s law enforcement on September 24, and informed his readiness to carry out terrorist activities—in the form of explosions—in the Azerbaijani capital city Baku, in return for $20,000. He stated that he wished to carry out such operation because he used to work at a Baku construction company this year, but the company management had refused to pay him for his work and, as a result, he grew hatred toward Azerbaijanis, NSS press center informs.

It was found out, however, that Otazhonov had actually applied to NSS under the guidance of Azerbaijani special services and that his actions are nothing but a provocation. And these steps taken by Azerbaijan aimed to represent Armenia, before international instances and the media, as a country that organizes and sponsors terrorist activities.

It is noteworthy that Otazhonov’s sending to Armenia was organized at a time when Azerbaijan has found itself under a difficult political situation as a result of Ramil Safarov’s—the Azerbaijani army officer who had killed with an axe Armenian soldier Gurgen Margaryan in Budapest—release and glorification in Azerbaijan. The latter attempted to use Otazhonov to calm the wave of international dissatisfaction over the situation concerning Safarov. Azerbaijan has resorted to such adventurism so as to coverup the crimes it has committed.

Zamirzhon Otazhonov is deported from Armenia.

Iraq buys $4.2 billion in Russian weapons-document

By

Iraq has signed contracts to buy weapons from Russia worth more than $4.2 billion recently, according to a Russian government document issued on Tuesday at a meeting between Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Russian President Vladimir Putin vocally opposed the U.S-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 but Moscow has since sought energy and arms deals with Baghdad and the contracts mean Iraq is now one of Russia’s biggest weapons buyers.

The contracts were signed during visits to Russia by Iraq’s acting defence chief in April, July and August, the document showed. It gave no further details.

The Russian daily newspaper Vedomosti reported late last month that contracts worth $4.3 million were being agreed ahead of Maliki’s visit. It said they included deals for 30 Mi-28NE combat helicopters and 42 Pantsir-S1 mobile rocket launchers.

Russia delivered about $12 billion in weapons and signed about $3.7 billion in new arms contracts last year, according to Russian defence and security think-tank CAST.

‘Saudi weapons’ seen at Syria rebel base

By

BBC News has uncovered evidence that appears to suggest that weapons intended for the Saudi military have been diverted to Syrian rebels.

Three crates from an arms manufacturer – addressed to Saudi Arabia – have been seen in a base being used by rebel fighters in the city of Aleppo.

How the small crates reached Aleppo is unknown, and the BBC was not allowed to film their contents.

Saudi Arabia has refused to comment on the matter.

Turkey is calling for “international action” on Syria after a sixth consecutive day of cross-border shelling.

Turkey returned fire across the border on Monday after a Syrian shell fell on its territory.

Turkey would continue to do everything necessary to protect its borders, President Abdullah Gul said on Monday, adding that the “worst-case scenarios” were now taking place in Syria.

Vote On Political Prisoners Highlights Azerbaijan’s Attempts To ‘Silence’ PACE

By

By Claire Bigg
Radio Free Europe

October 05, 2012

It was a rare battle of wills at PACE, the Council of Europe’s usually humdrum parliamentary assembly.

Parliamentarians on October 3 turned up en masse to the assembly, based in the French city of Strasbourg, to vote on a resolution that formally defines the term ‘political prisoner.”

The seemingly innocuous resolution, which narrowly passed, will in fact facilitate PACE investigations of rights abuses in member states, particularly in increasingly authoritarian Azerbaijan.

Advocates of the resolution say the vote highlights an unsettling campaign by Azerbaijan to undermine PACE’s mandate and derail efforts to scrutinize the oil-rich South Caucasus country’s poor human rights record.

“You couldn’t take a single step in the cafeteria and within the building without seeing Azerbaijanis or members of Azerbaijan’s lobbying groups,” says Viola von Cramon, a PACE member who actively backed the text on political prisoners. “There was heavy, heavy lobbying going on. This was something we had never faced on that scale.”

Showering Gifts

While lobbying activities are permitted within PACE, Azerbaijan is also accused of buying off parliamentarians.

The European Stability Initiative (ESI), an independent research institute based in Berlin, has detailed efforts by Azerbaijani delegates to promote Baku’s interests in PACE by showering parliamentarians with generous gifts and trips to Azerbaijan.

The group published its findings in a May report titled “Caviar Diplomacy, How Azerbaijan Silenced the Council of Europe.”

“There has been a very conscious strategy of systematically inviting large numbers of parliamentary assembly members to various events in Azerbaijan,” says ESI’s director Gerald Knaus. “There has been a policy of gift-making. There has also, of course, been legitimate political lobbying. The end result has been a disastrous abrogation of the Council of Europe’s core mandate, which is to criticize member states if they don’t fulfill their obligations.”

Knaus, Von Cramon, and others say Azerbaijan’s aggressive lobbying is threatening PACE and undermining its credibility.

Baku has actively rallied parliamentarians from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and other countries to form what some observers see as an antidemocratic front within PACE.

So far, it has largely succeeded in preventing the Council of Europe from investigating widely reported instances of political repression in Azerbaijan.

Major Victory

Baku’s delegation to PACE this week unsuccessfully sought to pass an amendment to the text on political prisoners naming the European Court of Human Rights as the only institution entitled to rule on political prisoners, which would have made PACE toothless on the issue.

German parliamentarian Christoph Straesser, PACE’s special rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan and the man behind the resolution, denounced attempts to “sabotage” his bill and the accompanying report reiterating the Council of Europe’s concerns over the imprisonment of dissidents in Azerbaijan.

PACE rapporteur Christoph Straesser

Straesser has been barred from entering the country for a fact-finding mission since his appointment in 2009.

“On the basis of this resolution, I now expect to obtain a visa to Azerbaijan, he said following vote on October 3.”One of the reasons not to invite me was that there was no definition for the term ‘political prisoner’ and that it was therefore not necessary to invite me and to talk to me.”

The text’s adoption this week marks a major victory for those in PACE who want to see Azerbaijan brought to account for rights abuses.

It is also hailed as a watershed by rights campaigners and opposition activists in Azerbaijan.

Emin Milli, a Azerbaijani opposition blogger sentenced to two-and-a half years in jail in 2009 for hooliganism, hailed the October 3 vote as “a fantastic and miraculous outcome.”

“There are values and ideas that billions of dirty money can not buy!” he wrote on Facebook. “Thank you for making me to believe one more time that oil cannot always buy dignity.”

According to Straesser, at least 89 people are currently held in Azerbaijani jails on political grounds.

RFE/RL’s correspondent Rikard Jozwiak contributed to this report from Brussels

Kurdish troops in Syria shock Turkey – PHOTO

By

October 06, 2012 | 00:04

After removal of Syrian troops the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is currently the authority in its region, is establishing troops in Syria’s Kurdish inhabited northern part, which are called ‘Kurdistan People’ Army Brigades (YPG).

The PYD in northern Syria, affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has declared on Thursday about establishing new troops, which will ensure security of the Kurdish inhabited cities, Turkish Milliyet reports.

It is also mentioned that the new Kurdish troops have been established in a 15-km distance from Turkish border.