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ANCA launches new White House campaign for Karabakh peace

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karabakh-madridWASHINGTON, DC – Building on the momentum of last week’s grassroots campaign to members of the U.S. Senate and House, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is expanding the Armenian American community’s efforts against the flawed “Madrid Principles” to include targeted calls upon the White House for a more balanced and sustainable approach to ensuring a lasting peace for Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh).

“As an advocate for peace, I cannot accept – and urge you to oppose – any resolution that runs counter to our American belief in self-determination or that would force a Christian nation under a violent Azerbaijani regime that has recruited extremists (including Afghanistani Mujahideen and ISIS militants from Syria) to fight its anti-Armenian wars,” begins a letter to President Obama and Vice-President Biden. “Today, Artsakh – despite decades of Azerbaijani aggression – remains dedicated to strengthening its democracy, further developing its open economy, and working with in partnership with regional powers, the OSCE, and the international community toward a fair and enduring regional peace.”

“At its heart, Nagorno Karabakh is a very American story, representing the victory of a free people over foreign rule. A democratic, Christian-majority, pro-Western society that stands strong against the forces of intolerance deserves our support,” continues the letter to President Obama.

Meeting of Armenian and Russian presidents in Moscow
Rope Jumping in Armenia
Protest action in Yerevan

Armenian Genocide: Turkey is preparing an action plan against Germany

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Genocide turkey actionTurkey-Armenia-Germany-genocide-diplomacy-history

Istanbul, June 8, 2016 (AFP) – Ankara is preparing a “plan of action” against Germany after the vote by the Bundestag of a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire, said Wednesday the spokesman Turkish presidency, without further detail.

“Work on the measures to be taken (…) are underway with stakeholders, starting with our Foreign Ministry. They prepare an action plan, “said Ibrahim Kalin at an Ankara press conference broadcast live by the NTV news channel.

“When completed, it will be submitted to our Prime Minister, our President,” said Mr. Kalin, without further detail.

Turkey reacted angrily Thursday after the vote by the lower house of the German Parliament resolution which qualifies as genocide the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.

Ankara recalled its ambassador from Berlin for “consultations” and Turkish officials had multiplied the indignant declarations, reinforcing concerns about the application of the controversial agreement between the EU and Turkey, supported by Berlin, which has significantly reduced the influx of migrants in Europe.

Traveling in East Africa during the vote of the German Parliament, the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised that “measures” would be taken on his return to Turkey, without going into details.

Saturday, the head of the Turkish state has rejected charges of genocide, denouncing “blackmail” his country does “never accept”.

Many historians and more than twenty countries, including France, Italy and Russia, have recognized that there was a genocide. But Turkey says that it was a civil war, coupled with famine in which 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died.

Thursday, June 9, 2016,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Iraq FM tells Turkey to pull out of north, threatens action

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irp.thumbIraq’s foreign minister has reiterated demands that Turkish troops pull out of northern Iraq, warning Ankara that Baghdad may otherwise have to consider military action, the Hurriyet Daily News reports. 

A Turkey-Iraq spat flared up in early December after Turkey deployed reinforcements to a camp in northern Iraq’s Bashiqa region where Ankara is helping train Sunni and Kurdish fighters to battle Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants.

The deployment riled Baghdad, which considers the new troops an illegal incursion and which subsequently demanded their immediate and complete withdrawal.

After Iraq’s demands, Turkey began withdrawing the troops but not completely.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Dec. 30 that Baghdad will continue to pursue peaceful means, but that if there is no other solution and if “fighting is imposed on us, we will consider it to protect our sovereignty.”

Support the Royce-Engel Letter Stand up Against Aliyev’s Growing Anti-Armenian Aggression

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Royce_Engel_NK_Peace_InitiativeClick Here to take Action

Congressional Sign-On Letter Calls for Sniper Withdrawal, Additional Observers, Deployment of Gunfire Locators.

WASHINGTON, DC – Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-NY) of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee are asking their Congressional colleagues to join a bipartisan call for renewed U.S. leadership in keeping the peace along the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

The two senior legislators are currently collecting Congressional signatures on a letter addressed to Ambassador James Warlick – the U.S. representative to the OSCE’s Minsk Group tasked with reaching a resolution of Nagorno Karabakh-related security and status issues.  In their letter, they specifically call for the U.S. and OSCE to abandon their failed policy of false parity in responding to acts of aggression, noting that: “The longstanding U.S. and OSCE practice of responding to each new attack with generic calls upon all parties to refrain from violence has failed to de-escalate the situation.  Instead, this policy of artificial evenhandedness has dangerously increased tensions. There will be no peace absent responsibility.”

The letter proposes three concrete pro-peace steps that would, “in the short-term, save lives and help to avert war.  Over the longer term,” the letter notes, “these steps could contribute to a comprehensive and enduring peace for all the citizens of the region:”

—  An agreement from all sides not to deploy snipers along the line of contact.

— The placement of OSCE-monitored, advanced gunfire-locator systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the line of contact.

— The deployment of additional OSCE observers along the line of contact to better monitor cease-fire violations.

Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have both expressed support for these life-saving initiatives; Azerbaijan has not.

“We want to thank Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel for their leadership in keeping the peace, averting war, and promoting a durable and just negotiated settlement of status and security issues related to Nagorno Karabakh,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.  “We join with Armenia and Artsakh in supporting each of their three concrete peace-keeping proposals, and welcome – in the wake of yet another round of Azerbaijani aggression – their principled advocacy for replacing the U.S. and OSCE’s failed policy of artificial evenhandedness with an accountability-based approach to peace-keeping.”

The ANCA Royce-Engel action alert is available at: http://www.anca.org/nkpeace

Schiff to Warlick: “The Cause of Peace is Not Served by Ignoring Azerbaijan’s Increasing Belligerence”

In a related move, U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Ranking Democrat Adam Schiff (D-CA) has called upon the State Department to refrain from responding to future acts of Azerbaijani aggression with statements suggesting a “false equivalence between Azeri and Armenian behavior. In a letter sent this week to Ambassador James Warlick, the State Department’s representative to OSCE Minsk Group peace process, Representative Schiff warned that any “unwillingness to speak plainly about the aggressor in this conflict sends the message to Azerbaijan that it can act with impunity.”

Congressman Schiff stressed that, while he joins with Ambassador Warlick in seeking a peaceful and durable resolution to the Karabakh issue, “I do not believe the cause of peace is served by ignoring Azerbaijan’s increasing belligerence and the suggestion that both parties are equally to blame for violence along the Line of Contact when that is not the case.”

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Text of Royce-Engel Congressional Sign-On Letter to Ambassador Warlick

The Honorable James Warlick
U.S. Co-Chair
OSCE Minsk Group

Dear Ambassador Warlick:

We are writing out of concern over the escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh, resulting in deaths on both sides of the conflict.   It is our hope that the United States, through its role in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group, as well as through direct diplomacy with both Armenia and Azerbaijan, will immediately advocate for several steps to promote peace in the region.

We believe that securing the full and public support of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Nagorno-Karabakh for the following steps would, in the short-term, save lives and help to avert war. Over the longer term, these steps could contribute to a comprehensive and enduring peace for all the citizens of the region.

An agreement from all sides not to deploy snipers along the line of contact.

The placement of OSCE-monitored, advanced gunfire-locator systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the line of contact.

The deployment of additional OSCE observers along the line of contact to better monitor cease-fire violations.

We also urge you to publicly condemn specific acts of aggression along the line of contact. The longstanding U.S. and OSCE practice of responding to each new attack with generic calls upon all parties to refrain from violence has failed to de-escalate the situation.  Instead, this policy of artificial evenhandedness has dangerously increased tensions. There will be no peace absent responsibility.

Thank you for your consideration of these recommendations. We continue to support your efforts to reach a durable and just resolution to this conflict and look forward to your response.

 

We should worry more about Erdogan’s dangerous actions than his crazy stories

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By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

erdogan-dengeros-actionTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has completely destroyed his credibility by making numerous bizarre claims in recent years.

For example, Erdogan told a group of Latin American Muslims visiting Istanbul last year that Muslim Pilgrims discovered America over 300 years before Christopher Columbus:

“It is alleged that the American continent was discovered by Columbus in 1492. In fact, Muslim sailors reached the American continent 314 years before Columbus in 1178. …In his memoirs, Christopher Columbus mentions the existence of a mosque atop a hill on the coast of Cuba. A mosque would look perfect on that hill today.”

When people around the world scoffed at the President’s unfounded assertion, Turkish reporter Oray Egin found out that Erdogan had completely misconstrued what Columbus had written in his memoirs comparing a mountaintop in Cuba to “a pretty mosque.” Turkey’s leader wrongly concluded that Columbus had seen a mosque built by Muslim sailors!

In one of many spoofs poking fun at Erdogan, someone sarcastically alleged that Astronaut Neil Armstrong wrote in his autobiography: “When we landed on the moon, we saw the ruins of a magnificent building. Buzz Aldrin and I were amazed as we approached the ruins. This was a small, elaborately-built Ottoman mosque. When we came back to earth, NASA and the American government ordered us not to talk about it.”

Such outlandish pronouncements attributed to the Turkish leader continue to pop up on the internet. Given Erdogan’s penchant for telling wacky stories, many people tend to believe anything they read about him.

Here is a recent example: “Ottomans were the first to reach the moon, says Turkish President,” wrote Barbara Johnson in the World News Daily Report. She quoted Erdogan saying: “It is alleged that the first man to walk on the moon was Neil Armstrong in 1969. In fact, Muslim space explorers reached our satellite 334 years before that, in 1635. Everyone knows the story of the famous aviator, Lagari Hasan Celebi, the ‘Ottoman Rocket Man,’ who made the first successful manned rocket flight in 1633. What you might not know, is that he attempted to reach the moon two years later and could very well have succeeded.”

According to Turkish mythology, legendary Ottoman aviator Lagari Hasan Celebi launched in 1633 a 7-winged rocket using 140 lbs. of gunpowder. Before his flight, he reportedly proclaimed: “O my Sultan! Be blessed, I am going to talk to Jesus!” After his rocket landed in the sea, Celebi allegedly swam ashore and announced: “O my Sultan! Jesus sends his regards to you!”

Reporter Johnson continued her whimsical story: “Pres. Erdogan’s surprising claim generated some whispers and laughter from the audience, a reaction that clearly angered the Turkish politician. He slammed the skeptics for mocking his claims, adding that he would soon have the proofs to back his claims. ‘Why do you not believe it? Because you’ve never believed that a Muslim can do such a thing…. NASA may have destroyed most of the physical evidence of the Ottoman’s success during the Apollo 11 mission, but we’ll try to find any evidence that might have escaped the cover up.”

Of course, what Johnson wrote was not true. Erdogan never uttered those words. However, it is interesting that many Turks believed the fake story, and posted the following comments in reaction to Johnson’s article:
— Ali Emre Demir: “Unfortunately, he is our President.”
— Berkay: “The scary thing is, if you are living in that nation and witness all the things that man does, and see how many supporters he has. This is an embarrassment.”
— Deniz: “Poor, secular Turkish people! This Tayyip is the embarrassment of Turkey.”
— Huseyin: “You cannot imagine what we have been suffering. He is a solid tyrant…. He is a complete dishonor to us.”

Indeed, Erdogan is a big embarrassment to millions of Turks who are ashamed of him as their President. Unfortunately, the Turkish President’s actions are more ruthless than his words: He jails reporters, orders the shooting of civil rights activists, sues those who disagree with him, stashes away millions of dollars obtained by corrupt means, dismisses judges and law enforcement officials who refuse to carry out his illegal orders, and supports the infiltration of ISIS terrorists into Syria and Iraq.

The international community should worry more about Erdogan’s terrifying actions than his delirious ramblings!

Armenian youth to hold action near Azerbaijani consulate in Los Angeles

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Armenian-youthThe Armenian Youth Federation will hold a demonstration on Saturday in front of the Azerbaijani consulate in Los Angeles to call attention to the Azerbaijani government’s continuous human rights violations, Asbarez reported.

“We won’t sit idly by and watch Azerbaijan attempt to present itself as a democracy on the world stage,” said Gev Iskajyan, a member of the AYF’s Central Executive board. “With the international attention surrounding Baku at this time, we feel now is a good a time as any to show the world just how corrupt the government of Azerbaijan is.”

The demonstration is held amid European Games in Baku.

Karabakh War veteran: Azerbaijan will take provocative actions before April 24

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Karabakh-veteran

Karabakh War veteran

In commenting on the latest border incidents, Major-General Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan warns of large-scale provocations.

“Since we are marking the centennial of the Armenian Genocide this year, they [Turkey] is making preparations in three directions: culture, propaganda and diplomacy – as Turkish Premier Ahmet Davutoglu said,” he said.

According to him, Turkey has left “the military component” to Azerbaijan.

This is the reason for growing tensions this year.

“No war will break out, but we should expect large-scale provocations in all the sectors. And civilians will be targets as well,” Mr Ter-Tadevosyan said.

He believes that Turkey will stop its provocations at the end of this April. Azerbaijan cannot succeed.

Asked about possible losses should large-scale hostilities break out, Mr Tadevosyan said:

“Given the arsenal at both the sides’ disposal, both of them are expected to duffer serious human losses. Geographically, however, 100 missiles launched in Artsakh’s direction will be less effective than ten missiles launched in the direction of Azerbaijan.”

GLENDALE, AYF’s 100 Days of Action to Count Down to Genocide Centennial

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ayf-100GLENDALE, Calif—The Armenian Youth Federation – Western United States has announced the 100 Days of Action, a campaign to mark the centennial of the Armenian Genocide. The 100 days will begin on Jan. 14, the anniversary of the founding of the AYF, and will conclude on April 24, the day marked as the start of the Armenian Genocide.

The AYF will host daily actions throughout the 100 days, including weekly social media campaigns, boycotts and divestment, political lobbying, tactical demonstrations, cultural displays, and educational forums. The 100 Days of Action will culminate with a march leading to the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles on April 24.

“The 100 Days of Action are meant to involve the local community in actions that facilitate the advancement of the Armenian Cause,” said Arpa Hatzbanian, chairperson of the AYF Central Executive. “We urge the community to participate in the actions and support our efforts.”

Information about each day’s action will be available on ayfwest.org and across social media outlets (@ayfwest). Those who wish to participate can contact the AYF at 818-507-1933 or ayf@ayfwest.org.

Founded in 1933, the Armenian Youth Federation is the largest and most influential Armenian American youth organization in the world, working to advance the social, political, educational and cultural awareness of Armenian youth.