Kurds Armenian in France against “Erdogan barbarism” with the support of Jean-Luc Mélenchon

November 6, 2016 By administrator

kurd-armenian-protes-paris Pending the condemnation by Europe of the dictatorial regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and as a result of security measures taken by the Turkish power under the complacent gaze of the West losing values and at the spoliation of fatal memory, which struck the deputies of the pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP, including its leader Selahattin Demirtas, demonstrations of support for the Kurdish people were held in several French cities which have joined the Franco-Armenian Movement and also Charjoum Nor the Seround, Place de la Republique in Paris.

In front of thousands of demonstrators gathered Republic Square, as Berivan Firat, host of the Democratic Council of Kurds in France, called on organizations and citizens concerned about the respect of human rights, to condemn Turkey to Erdogan drifts for which he is responsible in his country in the grip of terror and destabilization by undemocratic actions, inspired by the worst dictatorships.

Chanting “Erdogan assassin! “” Erdogan out! “The demonstrators headed to the Place du Chatelet to attend the intervention of the leader of the Left Front Jean-Luc Mélenchon who gave his full support to the struggle of the Kurdish people (see video).

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry wrote: “France and Turkey are linked by common values that underpin their relationship and result in particular in the accession of our country to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Also, the arrest of several members of HDP party raises serious concern. France calls on Turkey to respect the rule of law and fundamental freedoms, including democratic pluralism and freedom of expression and of the press. “

For information, November 3, the Belgian courts rejected the terrorism allegations of the Turkish state against the Kurds.

Kurdistan Reportedly Sells 910,000 Bpd For $1B Every Month “Where Barzani stashing the Billions?”

November 3, 2016 By administrator

barzani-and-billions-oil By Tsvetana Paraskova

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq is selling 910,000 bpd and reaping nearly US$1 billion in oil revenues every month, an investigative reporting piece by the Kurdistan region’s news outlet NRT showed on Wednesday. If the figures are correct, Iraq as a whole is pumping much more than the central government, the Kurdistan government, and OPEC sources have been estimating.

According to a foreign source with knowledge of Kurdistan’s oil, NRT has estimated that the fields in the Kurdistan Region and in Kirkuk under the control of the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources are producing as follows: Khurmala oil field – 210,000 bpd, Tawke oil field – 190,000 bpd, Taq Taq oil field – 110,000 bpd, Havana and Bai Hassan oil field – 300,000 bpd, and other small oil fields – 100,000 bpd. That’s a total of 910,000 bpd, or 27,300,000 barrels every month. If oil is sold at US$36 as the KRG has indicated, this means almost US$1 billion in revenue.

NRT’s investigation has revealed that except for some foreign companies and “officials from the Kurdistan Region, including Masoud Barzani, the KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and the KRG Minister of Natural Resources, Ashti Hawrami, no other individual or party is aware of the revenue”.

According to figures by the autonomous province’s Ministry of Natural Resources, the KRG received US$328 million from crude oil exports in September. For the whole month of September, the KRG shipped a total of 16.94 million barrels of crude, according to the ministry.

Iraq – which has questioned the way OPEC calculates output from secondary sources since day one after the cartel agreed to work toward an agreement to limit production – released a few days ago detailed data about the crude oil output at each of its 26 oilfields as well as equally detailed export figures, in an attempt to prove that OPEC’s external-source output estimates do not reflect reality.

The data also included a total output figure from fields in Kurdistan. According to these figures, Iraq pumped 4.7 million bpd in September.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

Reporters Without Borders labels Erdogan as ‘enemy of press freedom’

November 2, 2016 By administrator

erdogan-enemy-of-press The Turkish regime has arrested at least 200 journalists and closed over 120 media outlets since the coup attempt, Reporters Without Borders said. President Erdogan hides behind a “veneer of democracy,” the group added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan likes the media to be “submissive and docile and sing his praises,” Reporters Without Borders said in a report published on Wednesday. The document lists 35 leaders and organizations deemed “enemies of press freedom,” as ranked by the group, which is also known by its French acronym RSF.

RSF published the list on November 2, the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.

Following the failed coup in July, Ankara started a crackdown on the press that worsened an already grim situation in Turkey, according to the organization. Over 200 journalists have been arrested and 125 remained in prison as in early October. The government also eliminated at least 124 media outlets “by decree” the report said.

Erdogan hides his “aggressive dictatorship under a veneer of democracy” according to the RSF.

The Turkish president is one of the new additions to the list, alongside Saudi King Salman, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza and several others. Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Kremlin Chief Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un are also listed in the 2016 report.

“The numerous new names show that strongmen and extremists of all kinds are still confident they can get away with oppressing free press,” RSF spokesman Michael Rediske said. “Some rulers have been prosecuting, torturing or killing critical journalists with impunity for decades.”

RSF also published a petition urging the German government and the EU Commission to respond to the crackdown in Turkey.

The affected journalists “need quick help from Germany and Europe, for example, by expedient processing of emergency visas.” The petition decried “fear and threatened livelihood” among critical publicists and publishers.

Ankara’s pretext ‘ridiculous’

Earlier this week, the Turkish authorities raided the opposition daily “Cumhurriyet,” and arrested the editor-in-chief, a cartoonist, and several reporters. The reasons for the arrests, according to the prosecutors, were suspicions of aiding Kurdish militants and support for the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

In an interview with DW, former “Cumhurriyet” editor Can Dundar called the accusations “ridiculous.”

“It would have been better if they said, ‘We don’t want to hear any dissenting voices and are not ready to tolerate even the slightest opposition.’ ‘Cumhuriyet’ has been fighting against the Gulen Movement for the last 20 to 30 years,” he told DW.

Also on Wednesday, UNESCO published a report saying that 115 journalists were killed on duty during last year. Analyzing reporters’ security between start of 2006 and end of 2015, the UN agency looked found that at least 827 journalists lost their lives. UNESCO said this statistic did not cover “the numerous other violations endured by journalists, which included kidnappings, arbitrary detention, torture, intimidation and harassment, both offline and online.”

dj/sms (epd, dpa)

Kim Kardashian takes out New York Times ad calling for recognition of ‘Armenian genocide’

September 19, 2016 By administrator

Photo: US reality television star Kim Kardashian and her sister Khloe visited the genocide memorial last year. (AFP: Karen Minasyan)

Kim Kardashian, the world’s most famous Armenian, has taken out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the massacre a century ago of up to 1.5 million Armenians to be recognised as genocide.

It was in response to the Wall Street Journal publishing an advertisement earlier this year, which supported the denial of the event.

The United States and Australia are among the nations that do not recognise the event as a genocide. Reality television star Kardashian has long campaigned for that to change, and visited its memorial last year.

What did the ad say?

On Saturday, Kardashian’s advertisement read:
“For the Wall Street Journal to publish something like this is reckless, upsetting and dangerous.

“It’s one thing when a crappy tabloid profits from a made-up scandal, but for a trusted publication like WSJ to profit from genocide – it’s shameful and unacceptable.”

She went on to ask:

“If this had been an ad denying the Holocaust, or pushing some 9/11 conspiracy theory, would it have made it to print?

“Many historians believe that if Turkey has been held responsible for the Armenian genocide, and reprimanded for what they did, the Holocaust may not have happened.

“In 1939, a week before the Nazi invasion of Poland, Hitler said, ‘Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?’

“We do. We must We must talk about it until it is recognised by our government because when we deny our past, we endanger our future.”

What do we know about the event?

One-and-a-half million Armenians and other minorities were forcibly expelled from Ottoman Turkey and went on to die during the so-called death marches between 1915 and 1917.

Armenians recognise this as a genocide, a term which Turkey has outright rejected.

Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting which started in 1915, but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and the deaths constituted an act of genocide.

Who recognises it and who doesn’t?

Pope Francis inflamed the debate last year describing it as the ‘first genocide of the 20th century’ during a mass to mark the centenary of the Ottoman killings of Armenians during World War I.

Countries like France and Germany both recognise the event as a genocide, France even has a law against denying the event.

Australia and the United States do not recognise the event as a genocide at a federal level.

https://twitter.com/mbradylynch/status/777183937621876737

The Armenian Artur Alexanyan (Greco-Roman wrestling, 98 kg) who crushed the Turkish Cenk Ildem (9-0) IS FINAL! Tonight the final at 23:30

August 16, 2016 By administrator

Artur-alexanyan-crush The Armenian Artur Aleksanyan (23) in the colors of Armenia is in the final of the Greco-Roman wrestling at the Olympic Games in Rio. In the semifinals the Armenian world champion title, just sent the Turk Cenk Ildem (30) with the score of 9-0! The favorite at Olympic title is final. With Mihran Harutyunyan also qualified for the final of the 66 kg Greco-Roman wrestling, Armenia has the possibility of having tonight two Olympic champions! In the quarter finals, Artur Aleksanyan had easily won (8-0) against the Romanian Alin Alexuc-Ciuriaru.

Tonight at 23:30 Artur Alexanyan will face in the final for an Olympic title against Cuban Yasmany Lugo Daniel Cabrera (26 years).

Krikor Amirzayan

Yet Again, Israel Denies the Armenian Genocide, side with Terrorist state of Turkey

July 5, 2016 By administrator

Israel Deny armenian Genocide Israel is one of the only democratic countries in the world, if not the only one, to do so, and to support Turkey’s stubborn policy of denial.
ByProf. Yair Aurongenocide scholar Jul 04, 2016 11:29 PM

On May 31, a few days before the lower house of the German Bundestag recognized the murder of the Armenian people – an act that reverberated worldwide – there was supposed to be a discussion of the subject in the Knesset. However, it was postponed under pressure from the Foreign Ministry (which is headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu). The discussion is due to take place in the Knesset on Wednesday.

This is a discussion of great importance for the battle that has been waged for years for Israeli recognition of the Armenian genocide. In the past year I hoped that if not the Israeli government, at least the Knesset would finally recognize it. But apparently there is very little chance of that, in light of the rapprochement agreement signed with Turkey. After all, who would endanger the agreement because of a negligible thing like whether or not there was a genocide of another nation.

There’s no chance that the Israeli government will recognize the Armenian genocide, but during the course of the year commemorating the 100th anniversary of the murder of the Armenian people, there was nevertheless a hope that perhaps the Knesset would do so. But apparently that hope is also evaporating.President Reuven Rivlin has in the past expressed profound identification with the suffering of the Armenians. When he served as Knesset speaker he even said that Israel should recognize the Armenian genocide. It’s a shame that he has refrained from repeating that since being elected president, saying only “I haven’t changed my mind.”

In a discussion in the Knesset Education Committee in July 2015, in which Edelstein participated, all the speakers from the coalition and the opposition supported recognition. Only a representative of the Foreign Ministry had reservations, claiming that the concept of “genocide” has become politicized, and therefore Israel should not use it. Imagine if any European government were to claim that the “Holocaust” is a political concept, and therefore their government should not use it.

At the conclusion of the discussion the Education Committee called on the Knesset to recognize the genocide and on the Education Ministry to teach about it, but nothing happened. The annual discussion to take place in the coming days is the moment of truth: The thawing of relations with Turkey and the weapons deals between the governments of Israel and Azerbaijan, worth billions of dollars – weapons designated for clashes with the Armenians – are not glad tidings for the chances of recognition.

Even if people and institutions in Israel won’t be happy to hear these words, they must be said: Israel denies the Armenian genocide. We are one of the only democratic countries in the world, if not the only one, to do so, and to support Turkey’s stubborn policy of denial. The United States neither recognizes nor denies the genocide. When we deny the Armenian genocide, we are desecrating the memory of its victims. In my opinion, in so doing we are also desecrating the memory and the victims of the Holocaust.

Because of this last sentence, which I refused to omit, the administration of Yad Vashem rejected a scientific article that I was invited to write for the institution’s newsletter, Teaching the Legacy. But I will continue to say and to write that sentence until the State of Israel, if only via the Knesset, recognizes the Armenian genocide.

Today it’s already known and has been proven: When we deny a genocide that took place in the past, we are preparing the ground for a future genocide.

The discussion in the Knesset should arouse great interest in the world, and of course among the Armenians in Armenia and in the Diaspora, and hopefully here too. Those who are fighting for recognition are requesting “a vote now.” Transferring the discussion to the committee was an important step for years, but it has become a cynical political means to conceal the truth. We continue to deny.

Israeli recognition (which is not anticipated, to my regret) would probably lead to recognition of the Armenian genocide by the entire world. If Israel recognizes it, U.S. President Barack Obama won’t be able to continue to remain on the sidelines either. What is true of genocide is also true of the battle against its denial: Anyone who is not on the side of the victims is on the side of the deniers.

Prof. Auron is a genocide scholar who has been working for years for recognition by Israel and the world of the Armenian genocide.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.728904

The 1909 massacres of Armenians in Adana – Hurriyet Daily News “Must Read to Understand Turkish Atrocity”

March 24, 2016 By administrator

_{By William Armstrong – william.armstrong@hdn.com.tr}
‘In the Ruins: The 1909 Massacres of Armenians in Adana’ by Zabel Yessayan (AIWA, $20, 262 pages)
In the spring of 1909, Zabel Yessayan journeyed from Istanbul to Adana, after the massacre of up to 30,000 Armenians around the Mediterranean city. She was part of a group sent by the Armenian Patriarchate, assigned to survey conditions after the killings and provide assistance to orphans and refugees. Born in Istanbul, the 31-year-old Yessayan had also lived in Paris, where she published articles, stories and translations. But her experiences around Adana far exceeded anything she had seen before.
“Among the Ruins” was published on her return to Istanbul in 1911. It is a vivid testimony full of gruesome details, depicting the hellscape that Armenian districts had become and the trauma endured by the locals. “Our race’s veins had been slashed open once again, and our blood, still pulsing with joy over our newfound freedom, had been spilled once again on soil fertilized by our sweat,” she writes.
The massacres occurred in 1909, in the weeks after a countercoup in Istanbul saw Sultan Abdülhamit II returned to power. The sultan’s authority had been seized the previous year by the Young Turks, a cadre of young military officers who pledged to restore the constitution and protect the rights of all Ottoman subjects. The Christian-minority Armenians generally supported the coup against the paranoid sultan, who had inspired earlier pogroms against Ottoman Armenians. When Abdülhamit wrested back control from the Young Turks, he again mobilized popular support by identifying himself with the historically Islamic character of the state, promising to eliminate secular policies and restore the sharia. This precipitated a new wave of anti-Armenian raids in Adana carried out by local Muslims.
“In the Ruins” describes the aftermath of the bloodbath. It is full of purple prose but many of the descriptions are still shocking over 100 years later. “The devastated city stretches outward like a cemetery without end,” Yessayan writes upon arrival in Adana:

Nothing has been spared; all the churches, schools, and dwellings have been reduced to formless piles of charred stone, among which, here and there, the skeletons of buildings jut up. From east to west, from north to south, all the way to the distant limits of the Turkish quarters, an implacable, ferocious hatred has burned and destroyed everything.
The pages are full of visceral descriptions of the traumatized orphans and miserable survivors left behind. Everywhere she goes Yessayan finds locals bearing the physical and mental scars of torture and attempted lynching. At times there is a kind of stunned numbness in the aftermath of a cataclysm: “On their dark-skinned, somber, gloomy faces, you could sometimes read, as in an open book, all the terror of hours that defied description; but at other times, everything clouded over, and then the children were impenetrable. And that was even more unsettling.” Elsewhere the suffering is more clearly on the surface, and it is detailed in unforgettable, haunting passages.
The familiar theme of Armenian survival and resistance against all odds, often invoked today, can be seen in Yessayan’s work even back in 1911. As she writes towards the end: “The voice of my battered, bloody race was singing its imperious refrain in my veins. The enemy’s designs had once again proven fruitless, and I could sense, despite the desperately sad impressions we had gathered as eyewitnesses, that something immortal and indestructible … had eluded the criminals.” Such passages make for melancholy reading in the knowledge of what would happen in Eastern Anatolia six years later.
There are also chilling contemporary echoes. Adana is barely 100 km from the Syrian border, where today a human tragedy continues to unfold with no end in sight. Yessayan paints a pitiful picture of the surviving Armenian children of Adana:

When they saw anyone at all, they shivered like someone in the grip of a fever. In the imaginations of those tender innocents, grown-ups all looked alike. They saw a criminal in every adult male, were deluded by terrifying resemblances, imagined ghastly scenes … Their young minds were deranged, because for days on end they had seen criminals brandishing knives or rifles, eyes burning with a lust for evil, mouths contorted by curses and threats.

It’s hard to read such descriptions without thinking of terrified Syrians displaced on the border today.

EXECUTION: Levon Ekmeddian The Association of Turkey Human Rights emphasizes the illegality of the trial

January 17, 2016 By administrator

arton121038-480x311 The members of the Association of Human Rights who attended the transfer of the body of Levon Ekmekdjian, his family demanded, noted that over the formalities which lasted two years, we had to make non approaches required by the regulations; they stressed the illegality of his trial and execution.

The body of Levon Ekmekdjian who was executed in Ankara, was returned to his family in France, two years after the start of the procedures initiated at the request of his family by the Association of Human Rights (IHD).

The body of Levon Ekmekdjian which was exhumed Cebeci Asri Cemetery in Ankara December 23, 2015 and taken to Paris will be planted after a DNA check, during a ceremony.

The Istanbul branch of the Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination Commission branch of the IHD held today (January 7) a press conference about it.

Eren Keskin, lawyer of the family of Ekmekdjian, said the formalities for approval to transfer the body, which would have had to take a day, lasted two years because of barriers erected; she noted that being deprived of a lawyer and his right to express himself at his trial, Levon Ekmekdjian was sentenced to the death penalty.

The formalities, which would not have taken more than a day, it lasted two years.

Levon Ekmekdjian, born in 1958, was the child of an immigrant family in Lebanon after the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Member of the Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), he was arrested as a suspect in the attack on the Esenboga Airport in Ankara, August 7, 1982, during which, according to figures officials, nine people were killed and 72 injured; Turkey was at that time under the military junta.

Ekmekdjian, imprisoned in the Mamak prison had been executed January 29, 1983, the day after the conviction to the death sentence had been served.

The family of Levon Ekmekdjian in 2013 had filed a case with the Commission IHD members who were in Paris for a conference and had informed them of a process for the transfer of the body of Levon Ekmekdjian in Paris.

Keskin was taken as a family lawyer and IHD members had discovered the body of Levon Ekmekdjian was Cebeci Asri Cemetery buried in Ankara.

Although the transfer of the body, since the location of the body through the Cemeteries Branch was made, authorization and a declaration of the Health Directorate of the Province stating that no public health problem was posed would been enough, things did not go normally.

After two years at cross-correspondences, even not provided for in administrative procedures, among various levels of internal affairs departments of Justice and Foreign Affairs, the remains of Levon Ekmekdjian were exhumed from his grave and transported to Paris .

“An execution and punishment illegal death sentence”

Meral Cildir, reading a statement by the IHD, said that the execution and sentencing were illegal.

“He did not advocate. The ability to defend itself was not given to him. And he could call, with no lawyer.

“In his statement he expressed regret and according to the law in force at the time, he would not have been performed. Despite this, Ekmekdjian was executed without delay.

“The date of the decision approving its implementation is January 28, 1983. Levon Ekmekdjian was executed on the morning of the next day, January 29.

“At that time, it was the state of emergency imposed by the fascist junta that reigned, but Levon Ekmekdjian was special treatment because in the eyes of power, he was not a” terrorist “but a” Armenian terrorist “.

“We must tell the truth about Esenboga”

Cildir drew attention to the fact that the truth about the fighting in Esenboga was not revealed.

“The crucial details about the event and have been kept secret for many years regarded as state secrets. Nevertheless, evidence has been made public in very small circles, and non-official documents are accessible. Shedding light on the event has not been made yet. It is not known if autopsies were done on dead or technical studies were made.

“The first time an eyewitness who had been held hostage that day spoke, it was in” The Raid Esenboga “, a documentary by CNN Turk in 2004. He said he n ‘Never forget that finding himself face to face with a police officer, he had immediately opened fire on him when it was trying to escape through the window he had broken. It was a policeman who had shot him. How others were killed must be reported, and the truth must be revealed. “

Beyza Kural isatanbul

BIA News Desk

January 7, 2016

Translation Gilbert Béguian

This website is published within the framework of “Journalists for the Law, the Law for Journalism” – under the acronym BIA3 – an initiative developed by the IPS Communication Foundation with the financial assistance of the International development Sweedish Assembly.

http://bianet.org/english/human-rights/170877-levon-ekmekciyan-s-funeral-by-his-family-after-32-years

Bulgarian politician dumped for backing Turkey over downing of Russian jet

December 25, 2015 By administrator

Lutvi Mestan (Photo: Cihan)

The leader of Bulgaria’s ethnic Turkish party has been ousted from his post and expelled from the party, apparently for declaring support for Turkey in its row with Moscow over the downing of a Russian warplane.

Lutvi Mestan, who headed the opposition Movement for Rights and Freedoms party (MRF), which represents ethnic Turks, voiced support for Turkey’s action last month in a declaration to the Bulgarian parliament in which he said Russian military aircraft had repeatedly violated Turkish airspace.

Turkey said it shot down the plane in defense of its airspace. Moscow denied its plane had passed over Turkish territory.

A spokeswoman for the MRF said on Thursday that Mestan had been dismissed from his post and expelled from the party by a unanimous decision by its leadership taken at a meeting in the villa of party founder Ahmed Doğan.

“All the decisions regarding Mestan were unanimous,” the spokeswoman, Velislava Krasteva, told reporters.

Doğan, a respectable elder statesman of Bulgarian politics, said during the meeting that “this would be the fate of everyone who stands up against Bulgaria’s national interests,” the spokeswoman said.

Anonymous declares war on Terrorist State of Turkey

December 23, 2015 By administrator

The Anonymous hacktivist group has taken responsibility for a powerful cyber-attack on the Turkish sector of the internet last week, Russia Today reports.
It promised to continue waging cyber warfare on .tr domains until Ankara stops the “insanity” of supporting Islamic State.

The massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on Turkish websites last week, initially attributed to spooky “Russian hackers,” has been clarified with Anonymous issuing a video claiming responsibility and declaring cyber war on Turkey for supporting terrorists of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

The DDoS attack (measured in gigabits per second, or plainly how much traffic is being sent to a site) on Turkish DNS servers reached 40 Gbps, quite enough to shut down altogether any domain.

The attack began on December 14, and came to a halt only a week later, on December 21. Turkish media alleged that 400,000 .tr domains were forced offline.

The affected websites were able to return online only after Turkey’s leading National Response Center for Cyber Events cut off all incoming international traffic to the .tr websites, thus shutting down national “internet borders,” completely and denying “anybody outside the country access to Turkish websites,” Anonymous pointed out.
“This mass cyber-attack is known to be the biggest so far with the intensity of slowing down the websites,” ODTÜ Computer Engineering Professor Attila Özgit said as cited by Hurriyet Daily News.
The hacktivists claim the attack on Turkey was conducted within the framework of the counterterrorist cyber operation #OpISIS. The basic message behind the attack is that Turkey’s woes with the internet are set to repeat unless Ankara revises its policies towards Islamic extremists.

“We won’t accept that [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, the leader of Turkey, will help ISIS any longer. The news media has already stated that Turkey’s internet has been the victim of massive DDOS
attacks,” SAID a cloaked figure in the video wearing a Guy Fawkes mask.

Source: tert.am