Video: an Interview with Armenian Honorary Consul in Bangkok Thailand

May 11, 2016 by administrator

Honorary Consul of the Republic of Armenia, Arto Artinian, Bangkok

By Wally Sarkeesian

I had the pleasure of Meeting and interviewing the Armenian Honorary Consul in Bangkok, Arto Artinian he is very dynamic full of energy engage with every aspect of promoting Armenian and Armenian cause and spread awareness about our Armenian identity,. beside running a successful jewelry Business, he host the consulate on his own business premises, He also maintaining

The Armenian – Thai Chamber of Commerce and actively involve in promoting Armenian product and services such as IT.

Armenian community of Thailand

The Armenian community of Thailand is an agile and dynamic community consisting of career professionals and their respective families who have chosen Thailand for their short or long term residence. The community is primarily centered in the capital city of the Kingdom of Thailand, as well as boasting a notable presence of Armenians in the coastal city of Pattaya.

It is one of the relatively newer communities of the Armenian diaspora, and is perhaps one of Asia’s noticeable communities in terms of year on year growth in numbers and in terms of collective vibrancy.

Besides the Consulate of the Republic of Armenia, the Armenian community of Thailand is also represented by the Armenian Thai Chamber of Commerce, connected on facebook group: Armenian Community Of Thailand and on a Google+ group: Sirely Hayer Google plus page.

For more information visit Website. www.armenianconsulatethailand.com

The Armenian – Thai Chamber of Commerce

The Armenian – Thai Chamber of Commerce is an organization which is established in the Kingdom of Thailand by Honorary Consul and Armenian – Thai Chamber of Commerce President Arto Artinian, in accordance to the rules and regulations of the Chamber of Commerce of Armenia. The Executive Committee consists of Armenian professionals living and working in Thailand.

The Chamber works to promote bilateral Armenian – Thai trade relationships and assists Armenian businessmen to source their products as well as establish their businesses in Thailand. The essential objective of the Armenian – Thai Chamber is to improve the trade and industry relations between Thailand and Armenia, as well as support Armenian businesses from Diaspora (Armenians in Asia, Middle East, US, Europe and Australia) who are visiting Thailand for business purposes.

Armenian – Thai Chamber of Commerce affiliated member businesses are intended to be in the gem and jewelry industry, gemstone manufacturing, hospitality, tourism, finance, construction, business consultancy, garments and textiles, industrial manufacturing, auto spare parts, as well as individual members who are professionals working in multinational companies.

The Armenian – Thai Chamber also keeps in touch with Asian based Armenian business communities in Singapore, Hong Kong and China, updating them on new business opportunities in Thailand as well as relevant business updates.

In Thailand, The Armenian – Thai Chamber also acts as a link between all other foreign chambers of Thailand, informing the Armenian community members living in Thailand, about the various networking, Educational, Business and Cultural events organized by the various co-Chambers and associations.

As part of its membership of the Joint Foreign Chamber Of Commerces in Thailand JFCCT, the Armenian – Thai Chamber has hosted in 2010 and 2013 the official, executive level Luncheon of all other foreign Chambers of Thailand updating them on the current Economic situation and Trade possibilities of and with the Republic of Armenia.

Bangkok airport safety issues ‘must be addressed’

February 19, 2016 by administrator

The airline industry has called on the Thai government to address problems at the country’s main airport in Bangkok, the BBC reports.

The International Air Transport Association (Iata) says Suvarnabhumi airport has inadequate capacity and substandard taxiways.

The criticism follows safety warnings last year from another air industry organisation about Thailand’s regulation and inspection of airlines.

The government has set up two bodies to oversee airports and airlines.

However, it has asked for more time to meet international standards.

Suvarnabhumi airport was opened nearly ten years ago. It is Thailand’s main international gateway but Iata says it is now operating beyond its capacity, and needs to be expanded.

“Aviation is critical to Thailand’s economic success. It is the backbone of the tourism industry and provides critical global business links,” Iata’s director general Tony Tyler says in a statement.

“It is in jeopardy, however, unless key issues of safety, capacity and costs are addressed urgently.”

The organisation also urged the Thai authorities to fix the problem of ‘soft spots’ in poor quality tarmac at Suvarnabhumi airport, where airliners sometimes got stuck and had to be pulled out.

Thailand is already struggling to address last year’s warnings from the United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), about a shortage of inspectors to check safety procedures among Thai airlines.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) subsequently downgraded its safety rating of Thailand’s aviation authority, finding that Thailand did not comply with the ICAO’s safety standards.

Iata also said safety oversight concerns raised by both the ICAO and the US FAA must be addressed.

Thai police claim Bangkok bombing suspect fled to Turkey

September 14, 2015 by administrator

AP photo

BANGKOK – The Associated Press

A key suspect in last month’s bombing at a Bangkok shrine that killed 20 people has fled to Turkey, Thai police said on Sept. 14.

Police had previously said the man, carrying a Chinese passport in the name Abudureheman Abudusataer, may have directed the Aug. 17 bombing of the Erawan Shrine. Investigations revealed that he left Thailand on Aug. 16 for Bangladesh, and police speculated that he might have gone to China.

However, national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said that information gathered by Thai police and Bangladeshi officials showed that the man departed Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, on Aug. 30 and traveled to Istanbul as his final destination, via New Delhi and Abu Dhabi.

“He departed Dhaka on Aug. 30 for Delhi by Jet Airways,” Prawut said. “From Delhi, he continued his travel to Abu Dhabi, and from Abu Dhabi he traveled on Aug. 31 to Istanbul. This is his final destination. It’s clear.”

This bolstered the theory that those behind the blast are Uighurs from the Chinese region of Xinjiang who have close ties to Turkey.

After weeks of demurring, Thailand has suggested that those behind the blast may have been from a gang involved in smuggling Uighurs. But others speculate they may be separatists or Islamist extremists angry that Thailand repatriated more than 100 Uighurs to China in July.

Uighurs complain of oppression by the Chinese government, and some advocate turning Xinjiang into a separate Uighur state.

Thai efforts to identify the members of the network believed responsible for the bombing continued on Sept. 13, when police in Bangkok raided an apartment that they suspected was linked to a bombing suspect. Police said no bomb-making materials were found in the apartment, which is in a building that serves as a hostel for women. Thai media reported that the two women tenants and a guest were taken away for questioning.

Two other key suspects are also in custody, charged with possession of illegal explosives. One of them was captured from an apartment on the outskirts of Bangkok where police also discovered bomb-making material.

The other was caught near the border between Thailand and Cambodia, and police said his fingerprints were found on a container with explosive material confiscated from the apartment.

Also on Sept. 14, Malaysia’s police chief announced that a Pakistani and two Malaysians have been detained in connection with the Bangkok bombing.

Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters that the three were detained a few days ago following a tip-off by Thai authorities. He said one of the Malaysians is a woman.

Among those who died in the blast were five Malaysians from one family. Many of the victims were foreigners as the shrine is a popular destination for tourists and Thais alike.

Khalid did not give details or say where in Malaysia the three were detained, when they will be formally charged, or what the charges would be. He said Malaysian police will investigate and work with Thai authorities on the detainees.

Thai police say the man who may have actually planted the bomb may have fled across Thailand’s southern border to Malaysia, but Khalid refused to speculate on that.

Prawut, the Thai police spokesman, said his department had told the Malaysians that some suspects might have escaped to Malaysia.

Malaysian police then investigated and arrested suspects who are allegedly involved in illegal human smuggling and they might have some information, Prawut said.

“However, we haven’t had any confirmation. … As a preliminary step, they have arrested suspects who are allegedly involved in illegal human smuggling. Whether they are involved in our bombing incident or not we will have to wait and see,” he said.

September/14/2015

BANGKOK BOMBING Arrest warrant against a Turk

September 2, 2015 by administrator

The investigation into the attack in Bangkok was directed to Turkey Wednesday, with an arrest warrant against a Turk accused of being part of the “network” behind this unprecedented attack in Thailand after two weeks an investigation has struggled to take off.
“He is wanted for illegal possession of war equipment”, said Wednesday the spokesman of the national police, Prawut Thavornsiri. The man, described as Emrah Davutoglu, (…)

Bangkok bombing: Was it the Grey Wolves of Turkey? Ultra-nationalist Turkish terrorist group

August 29, 2015 by administrator

By Philip Sherwell in Bangkok

Somyot Poompanmoung, Lieutenant General of the Thai police, Photo: Bloomberg

Ultra-nationalist Turkish terrorist group key suspect in bombing after arrest of reported Turkish national in Thai capital, The arrest of a reported Turkish citizen with bomb-making material by Bangkok police has put the spotlight on the Grey Wolves, a pan-Turkic terror group with cause for enmity of Thais
The Grey Wolves, an ultra-nationalist Turkish terrorist group, have emerged as key suspects in the Bangkok shrine bombing after the arrest of a reported Turkish national in the Thai capital.
The extremist faction may have committed the worst terrorist atrocity in Bangkok’s history in retaliation for Thailand’s recent controversial deportation of more than 100 Uighurs, ethnic Turkic Muslims, to China.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bomb that that tore through worshippers at the Erawan shrine, killing six Thais and 14 ethnic Chinese Asian visitors.
But in the most significant breakthrough since the August 17 bombing, Thai police have arrested a man carrying a passport, possibly falsified, of Adem Karadag, a 28-year-old Turk.
The man was seized with bomb making material – including the sort of ball-bearings packed around explosives in the device – in a police raid on an apartment near a university popular with foreign students on the outskirts of Bangkok.

His reported citizenship has focussed attention on a possible radical Turkish connection to the bombing.
As The Telegraph reported, Thai police have been investigating the possible role of Turkish visitors to the kingdom as they searched for a suspect matching the composite sketch drawn from surveillance video footage of a man who left a bulky back-pack at the bomb site a few minutes before the blast.
The Grey Wolves have figured as possible suspects because of pan-Turkish anger at Thailand’s deportation of 109 Uighurs to China.
That could make Thais and Chinese prime targets for the group. And the bombing target was a Hindu shrine in the centre of Bangkok that is extremely popular with Buddhist Thais and ethnic Chinese visitors to the city.
Anthony Davis, a respected Bangkok-based security analyst with IHS-Jane’s, first made public the argument that the most likely perpetrators were the Grey Wolves.

He noted that the radical faction took part in attacks on the Thai consulate in Istanbul in retaliation for the Bangkok military government’s deportation of Uighurs, despite widespread criticism by human rights groups that they faced persecution in China.
The Uighur men were separated by the Thais from their wives and children who were sent to Turkey, in a move that infuriated their supporters.
The atrocity does not bear the previous hallmarks of a domestic faction while no international terror group has claimed responsibility, as is the modus operandi of al-Qaeda and Islamic State factions.

The Grey Wolves are a Turkish ultra-nationalist organisation established in the 1960s. Their alleged death squads murdered left-wing and liberal activists and intellectuals as well as staging the attempt on Pope John Paul II’s life in 1981.

The radical Pan-Turkic organisation extended operations in the early 1990s into post-Soviet states with Turkic and Muslim populations, including the Nagorno-Karabakh War in Azerbaijan and the Chechen conflicts.
The group has close ties to Turkish crime mafia gangs that operate in Bangkok and could have provided logistical support for operations in the Thai capital.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

Turkish man charged in Thailand over Bangkok bombing

August 29, 2015 by administrator

An arrested suspect of the recent Bangkok blast is shown in this Thai Royal Police handout released on Aug 29, 2015.PHOTO: REUTERS

BANGKOK (AFP) – Thai authorities on Saturday detained and charged a 28-year-old Turkish man over a bomb attack in Bangkok last week that killed 20 people and wounded scores more.

It is the first arrest in connection with the August 17 bombing at the Erawan shrine in the capital’s bustling downtown district, which killed mostly Asian visitors, in Thailand’s worst single mass-casualty attack.

Around 100 police and military officers – including at least a dozen bomb disposal specialists – gathered outside an apartment block in Nong Chok district on the eastern outskirts of Bangkok where the man was arrested Saturday in possession of bomb-making equipment and multiple passports.

“We believe that the suspect was involved with the bombing” at the shrine, national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said on a live televised broadcast on Saturday evening.

He also said that the man was involved with a blast the day after the shrine bombing near a popular tourist pier which sent people scurrying but caused no injuries.

The 28-year-old has been charged with the “illegal possession of bomb-making materials such as ball bearings” and “pipes to use as a bomb container”, Prawut said.

Colonel Banphot Phunphien, spokesman of Thailand’s Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), told AFP the man was a “Turkish national”.

For days Thai police have been searching for a prime suspect, described as a foreign man, who was captured on security footage wearing a yellow t-shirt and leaving a bag at the shrine moments before the blast on security cameras.

But authorities have not yet linked the suspect now detained in military custody with the man seen on this video footage.

“We found dozens of passports inside his room, we have to check which nationalities they belong to,” he said on the televised broadcast.

In earlier comments on Thai broadcaster Channel 3, Mr Prawut said the “clothes and bomb-making materials” found in the accused’s room were linked to both recent blasts.

“The ball bearing is the same size” as those found at the two blast sites, he said.

– Multiple theories –

The attack on the Hindu shrine in Bangkok last week has left the vibrant city rattled and dealt a fresh blow to the kingdom’s reputation as a welcoming and safe travel destination.

The majority of those killed were ethnic Chinese worshippers from across Asia, who flocked to the shrine in the belief that prayers there bring good fortune.

Investigators have said the attack was clearly aimed at damaging the tourism industry but insist that Chinese tourists – who visit Thailand in larger numbers than any other nationality – were not singled out.

Earlier this week Thai police said they were not ready to exclude any possibility about who was behind the attack.

But speculation had grown over China’s ethnic Uighur Muslim minority – or their co-religious sympathisers – being behind the attack, motivated by Thailand’s forced repatriation of more than 100 Uighur refugees last month to an uncertain fate in China.

Bangkok’s consulate in Istanbul was stormed by angry protesters after the forced repatriation.

On Friday police said three Uighur Muslims, among dozens detained in the kingdom for illegal entry last year, had been questioned in eastern Sa Kaeo province, bordering Cambodia, over the bombing but provided no further details.

Earlier this week regional security analyst Anthony Davis from IHS-Jane’s said a potential perpetrator could be people from or affilated to the extreme right-wing Pan-Turkic movement known as the Grey Wolves, who have latched onto the Uighur cause in recent years.

In comments during a discussion on the blast at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) Davis said the group had close links with Turkish organised crime, who are known to have a presence in Bangkok, and were at the forefront of the attack on the Thai consulate in Istanbul.

His remarks were widely carried in the Thai press but police refused to state whether they believed the perpetrators had a Turkish connection.

Other potential perpetrators named by the police and experts have included international jihadists, members of Thailand’s southern Malay-Muslim insurgency, militants on both sides of Thailand’s festering political divide or even someone with a personal grudge.

Source: straitstimes.com

Bomb blast rocks central Bangkok, 16 killed

August 17, 2015 by administrator

A bomb has exploded outside a Hindu shrine in central Bangkok, killing at least 16 people and wounding scores more, police say.

“The death toll is now 16,” police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said on Monday, while an emergency medical centre said more than 80 people were injured in the massive blast.

A “significant portion” of the casualties were foreigners, he said.

The explosion took place at the Rajprasong intersection, which was the center of many contentious political demonstrations in recent years. The intersection is located in a central Bangkok district popular among tourists for the Erawan Hindu Shrine. The shrine is located on a main road through Bangkok’s commercial hub and is surrounded by three major shopping malls.

“Our initial findings are it is a bomb inside the shrine,” Thailand’s police chief Chakthip Chijinda told Channel 9 television.

Over 80 people are also said to have been injured in the blast. The death toll is likely to increase with many seriously injured and undergoing emergency procedures.