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Former President Robert Kocharyan will appeal the court’s ruling to remand him in pre-trial custody today to the court of appeals.
Kocharyan’s attorney Aram Orbelyan told ARMENPRESS they plan to appeal the ruling today. “We will appeal the ruling and then more detailed information concerning the results of the investigation will be available,” he said.
Asked about Kocharyan’s current mood, Orbelyan said the former president is in normal mood and he is working out.
WASHINGTON, DC – The leadership of the Congressional Armenian Caucus today called on their U.S. House colleagues to join with them in a bipartisan request that President Donald Trump honestly and accurately commemorate the Armenian Genocide, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
“Visit anca.org/genocide to add your voice to the Congressional Armenian Caucus in calling upon President Trump to reject Turkey’s gag-rule against an honest American remembrance of the Armenian Genocide,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “This is a vital moment. At the start of this new and disruptive era, we have an opportunity to help America break bad habits that have, for far too long, held America hostage to the irrational dictates of foreign governments. So, please, take action today and then encourage your friends and family to join you in asking their U.S. Representatives to co-sign this Congressional letter.”
In a “Dear Colleague” letter to U.S. Representatives, Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Jackie Speier (D-CA), David Trott (R-MI) and David Valadao (R-CA) as well as Vice-Chairs Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) explained “there is no debate that an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were massacred in the first genocide of the 20th century. The United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, documented the Genocide and raised significant funds to help the Armenian people in its aftermath.” Their letter went on to state that “A Presidential recognition would pay tribute to the lives lost, the perseverance and determination of those who survived, and to the many Americans of Armenian descent who have strengthened our country to this day.”
In their letter addressed to President Trump, Members of Congress will note that Presidential action on this matter would be an extension of previous affirmation by the executive and legislative branches of government, including “President Reagan, who recognized the Armenian Genocide in 1981, and the Eisenhower Administration, which did the same in a 1951 submission to the International Court of Justice. The House of Representatives has also commemorated the Armenian Genocide, through HJR148 in 1975 and HJR247 in 1984.”
The letter also highlights the historic levels of U.S. assistance provided through the Congressionally chartered Near East Foundation, “which raised $116 million (over $2.5 billion in 2017 dollars) to aid the victims of the Ottoman Empire’s mass murder of millions of Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Pontians, Syriacs, and other persecuted peoples. The generosity of the American people saved countless lives and helped to ensure the continued survival of the Armenian culture.” The letter concludes by urging President Trump to “appropriately mark April 24th as a day of American remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.”
The ANCA has launched a nationwide online letter writing and calling campaign urging Members of Congress to co-sign the Armenian Caucus letter to President Trump. To learn more and take action, visit anca.org/genocide.
The German TV host has decided to appeal against a court’s decision to prevent him from reciting a poem critical of Turkish President Erdogan. The verse accuses the leader of bestiality and watching child porn.
Böhmermann’s lawyer Christian Schertz said on Wednesday that the Hamburg court’s decision to put a restriction on the poem was “blatantly wrong” and based on “technical errors.”
Schertz said he would file an appeal against the injunction and even push for a decision from the Constitutional Court. “You can’t cut up a painting and only allow parts of it to be shown,” he said.
If he failed to respect the injunction, Böhmermann would have to pay up to 250,000 euros or spend six months in jail.
‘Slanderous and defamatory’
The German judiciary system allows plaintiffs to register a case in a court of their choice. The Turkish president filed a complaint at the court in Hamburg, known to be particularly strict in cases of defamation.
The court’s judges had said on Tuesday that the poem was subject to artistic freedom but contained sexual references that were “slanderous and defamatory” of the Turkish president. They insisted that their decision was based on balancing freedom of opinion, on the one hand, and the personal rights of the plaintiff, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the other.
“The court has found that the statements in the poem are undeniably slanderous and defamatory and that it is not a question of taste,” Erdogan’s lawyer Michael von Sprenger told reporters after the verdict was announced.
Merkel’s intentions under question
Böhmermann’s poem about Erdogan was aired on March 31 in German public television. It made fun of the Turkish leader’s authoritarian policies and accused him of indulging in child pornography and having sex with goats.
Last month, the German chancellor allowed a request from Erdogan to investigate the comedian under a law that prosecutes people insulting foreign heads of state. Although prosecutors have not yet filed charges, the incident has sparked a nationwide debate on freedom of speech in Germany.
Critics have also questioned Angela Merkel’s intentions regarding Germany’s relationship with Turkey, which is part of a multi-billion deal to take back refugees fleeing to Europe.
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Source: DW
Bush and Saudi Dynasty
The US alliance with Saudi Arabia should appeal only to masochists, American scholar Ted Galen Carpenter notes, adding that if Washington is really interested in defeating Daesh, simultaneously trying to undermine Iran makes little strategic sense.
There is something masochistic about Washington’s longstanding friendship with Saudi Arabia — America’s impulsive Middle Eastern partner, Daesh’s sponsor and a “chronic and horrific” abuser of human rights, Ted Galen Carpenter, a US author and senior fellow at the Cato Institute, emphasizes.
“US officials and prominent political figures from both parties routinely describe Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Gulf clients as ‘friends’ of the United States. But Americans should take a closer look at the nature of their Saudi ‘friends,'” Carpenter writes in his article for The National Interest.
While the White House and the international community have repeatedly condemned the notorious Daesh terror group for beheadings of their victims, America’s Mideast head-chopping ally Saudi Arabia executed more than 150 people in the same very fashion in 2015.
Furthermore, in early January 2016 Riyadh decapitated some of 47 men (others were executed by firing squad) including peaceful cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
“Many of the victims, such as the prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, had apparently done nothing more than demonstrate against or publicly criticize the regime,” the US scholar remarks.
In addition to Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuse record, Riyadh “has consistently engaged in actions that undermine America’s security,” Carpenter continues, referring to the monarchy’s involvement in funding, teaching, training and funding of Islamic extremists since the early 1980s.
“Given the pervasive program of Saudi-sponsored radicalism, it is no coincidence that sixteen of the nineteen hijackers on 9-11 were Saudi nationals,” he stresses.
Incredible as it may seem, Washington not only turns a blind eye to Riyadh’s misdeeds, but assists its Mideast partner in its controversial military operations.
In 2011, the White House tacitly endorsed the Saudi-led military intervention in Bahrain. Then Washington agreed to provide intelligence and logistical support for Riyadh’s invasion of Yemen.
And now, the Obama administration is “flirting with endorsing” of the Saudi-Turkish plan to deploy their ground troops in Syria.
“US leaders exhibit a curious myopia if they do not see the underlying problems,” Carpenter underscores.
The situation is complicated by the fact that Saudi Arabia has long been funding and arming Daesh and other Sunni Islamists in the region. However, some US policymakers are much more concerned about the emergence of Iran, the state that remains the “principal barrier” to Daesh and its expansion.
“The alliance with Saudi Arabia should appeal only to masochists,” the US scholar believes.
Still, according to some experts there are clear signs that the pillars of the US-Saudi friendship are trembling.
“The US-Iran nuke deal and the consequent partial change of heart of the US over the Syrian crisis have certainly greatly ‘flooded’ the otherwise strongly built ship of the US-Saudi alliance, putting it in a position where its sinking is not altogether impossible,” Salman Rafi Sheikh, research-analyst of International Relations and Pakistan’s foreign and domestic affairs, wrote in his article for New Eastern Outlook.
At the same time, American researcher, historian and author F. William Engdahl has repeatedly noted that Washington has apparently set a trap for the House of Saud in Syria and Iraq.
“The trap will likely see the map of the entire Middle East redrawn fundamentally for the first time since the secret… Sykes-Picot Plan,” the historian stresses in his analysis for New Eastern Outlook.
Remarkably, American columnist and foreign correspondent in the Middle East Doyle McManus echoed Engdahl’s stance in his January article for Los Angeles Times. The journalist assumed that the White House purportedly has had enough of Riyadh.
“The fracture in US-Saudi relations isn’t going away, because the foundations of the relationship — the interests the two countries had in common — are no longer as strong,” he wrote, citing former US ambassador to Riyadh, Charles W. Freeman Jr., who added that in the recent years Washington and Riyadh “have increasingly seen their interests diverge.”