Gagrule.net

Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • GagruleLive
  • Armenia profile

Armenia to celebrate Battle of Sardarapat and the Battle of Bash Abaran Century of Victories on Monday

May 26, 2018 By administrator

YEREVAN, MAY 26,  The day after tomorrow, Monday, Armenia will celebrate two significant events – Republic Day (100th anniversary of establishment of first republic) and the 100th anniversary of the “Heroic Battles of May” –  the historic battles which took place in early 20th century and were a turning point for the country – most notably the Battle of Sardarapat and the Battle of Bash Abaran. The Armenian victories at these battles halted the invasion of the Ottoman Empire.

Armenia’s law enforcement issued a notification ahead of the celebrations on the schedule of events for that day.

Citizens willing to attend celebrations at the Sardarapat Memorial can travel to the area by special buses from Yerevan’s Republic Square at 08:30 in the morning.

The celebrations carry the title – Century of Victories.

A celebration will also kick off 20:30 in Yerevan’s Republic Square.

Several nearby streets will be shut down for safety reasons from 17:00.

 

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Armenia, battle, celebrate, Sardarapat

The Battle for Aleppo intensifies after ceasefire ends

October 23, 2016 By administrator

aleppo-battle-intensifiesThe battle for control of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo intensified on Sunday with air strikes, ground offensives and shelling, the morning after a resurgence in fighting ended a Russian ceasefire, a monitor and rebel groups said.

There was fierce fighting between insurgents and Syrian government and allied forces along a strategic frontline in southwest Aleppo. In August rebels briefly broke through this government-held strip of land to try to break a siege on rebel-held eastern Aleppo enacted in July.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there was heavy rebel shelling onto the government-controlled Hamdaniya district, part of this battle front.

Syrian or Russian air strikes hit a number of rebel-held areas just west of Aleppo city from dawn on Sunday. Air raids also hit north of Aleppo and deeper into west Aleppo countryside, the Observatory said.

Aleppo has been a major battleground in the Syrian conflict, now in its sixth year. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backed by the Russian military, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and an array of Shi’ite Muslim militias, wants to take full control of the city.

Russia had declared a unilateral ceasefire from Thursday which was rejected by rebels, lasted three days and did not result in hoped-for medical evacuations from the city or aid deliveries.

Air strikes within the city stopped for three days, but resumed late on Saturday as the third day of the truce expired.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel alliance, which has said it is preparing for a big attack to break the siege of eastern Aleppo, warned residents in and around the city to stay away from Syrian government military buildings for their own safety in a statement on Saturday.

FSA rebel groups said in statements they had repelled various offensives by government and allied forces along the frontline separating rebel- from government-held Aleppo city late on Saturday.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Aleppo, battle, intensifies, Syria

Erdogan versus Gulen battle now spills over into Bosnia’s

July 22, 2016 By administrator

Bosnia controlBy Gordana Knezevic

July 22, 2016

As if Bosnia did not have enough of its own problems, it is at risk of becoming embroiled in the increasingly fraught domestic struggles of Turkey. The country’s friendship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is certain to come under strain because of the extensive network of Fethullah Gulen’s schools scattered across the country.

In January 2015, Erdogan had asked for the closure of the entire network of Gulen’s schools in Bosnia, according to the Bosnian daily Avaz. Apart from the capital Sarajevo, they are present in all the major centers in the Muslim-Croat Federation — Bihac, Zenica, Tuzla, and Mostar. The request was not sent through regular diplomatic channels, but directly to the ruling Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA) run by Bakir Izetbegovic.

Gulen schools have been active in Bosnia since 1997. Several hundred flats, kindergartens, high schools, and universities are part of the network. The most prominent are the International Burch University in Sarajevo and the Una-Sana college in northern Bosnia.

The Gulen movement is dedicated to investing in education for the lower and middle classes. The movement states its purpose is to impart the moral values of Islam, as well as subjects such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry, with a view to forming a new Turkish elite and eradicating the secular ideas of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish state. 

Postwar Bosnia has been an important playground for Turkish politicians. With Erdogan keen to revive memories of his country’s imperial heritage, the former Ottoman province could be an ideal stage for Turkey to flex its muscles as a regional power.

There is a new geopolitical context, as well. Since the war (1992-1995), Bosnian Serbs have been looking to Serbia as their “motherland,” and Bosnia as a kind of “temporary home.” It is similar with the Bosnian Croats. Croatia is the “homeland” and their presence in Bosnia seen as merely accidental. Squeezed between the two, many Bosnian Muslims have turned to Turkey. Turkish flags are often waved by young fans in the streets of Bosnian cities following sporting victories.

However, Turkey’s patronage of Bosnia’s Muslim community is more apparent than real. It is a myth that Turkey is the biggest investor in Bosnia. In fact, Austria tops the list and Turkey is not even among the top 10 investors in the country. But Turkey did help with the restoration of the famous Old Bridge in Mostar. It was also involved in the latter stages of another landmark project, the reconstruction of Banja Luka’s Ferhadija mosque, opened on May 7, 2016.

In other words, Turkish investments in Bosnia are token by comparison with other countries, but they are focused on the rebuilding of highly symbolic structures from the Ottoman period, which were destroyed in the war. Such perceived expressions of “brotherly love” between Turkey and the Bosnian Muslims are viewed askance by Belgrade — even though Turkish investments are far higher in Serbia and Croatia.

In terms of foreign education, however, Turkey dominates — for now, at least. A few months ago, the official line from Sarajevo’s International Burch University was that as an institution of higher education it was founded and run in accordance with local regulations, and was subject to oversight by the Bosnian authorities. There has been no comment since the ongoing crisis in Turkey began to unfold, with the government’s crackdown on alleged Gulenist supporters including thousands of teachers and university deans.

The Turkish Embassy in Sarajevo has previously disowned the Gulenist educational network in Bosnia, stating that “the Turkish state has no link with Bosna Sema [a Gulen school],” and asking Bosnian citizens to be wary.

The same appeal for caution was issued by Salmir Kaplan, the former culture and sports minister in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the country’s two constituent entities. Kaplan had first-hand experience of the Gulen schools and has said he was struck by their cult-like aspects. Others, like Slavo Kukic, a professor in Mostar, have pointed to the absence of any educational standards. It is too easy for anyone to open a university in Bosnia, Kukic told RFE/RL’s Balkan Service:

“The first universities and schools [after the war] were started in gas stations. They did not have space. Now they are producing PhDs. The way it seems to work is — enroll on Thursday and graduate by Saturday, metaphorically speaking. We will pay for this [laxity] in the next decade.”

For Bosnia, the proliferation of foreign educational institutions, in the form of Gulenist schools, has thus far seemed more benign than the parallel invasion of Saudi-style mosques preaching a severe form of political Islam. But with events in Turkey escalating dramatically, Bosnia may find itself no longer a showcase for Turkish power and largesse, however token or symbolic, but a new battlefront in a suddenly furious domestic dispute.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: battle, Bosnia, Erdogan, Gulen, spills

Turkish scholar affirms: Turkey has lost battle for the truth

November 26, 2014 By administrator

turkey-lostBy Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
TheCaliforniaCourier.com

In recent years, a growing number of Turkish intellectuals, scholars, journalists and human rights activists have taken bold positions on the Armenian Genocide, in opposition to their government’s denials. Although their number is small and their influence on Pres. Erdogan negligible, the fight for truth and justice has to be carried on two fronts: within and outside Turkey. Hopefully, over time, the ranks of such liberal Turks would enlarge, forcing their government to implement reforms on a variety of issues, including the Armenian Genocide.

These progressive Turks, however, should not be viewed as activists for the Armenian Cause. Their primary goal is to live in a democratic society that respects the rights of all citizens and acknowledges the dark pages of its past.

One such righteous Turk is Cengiz Aktar, Senior Scholar at Istanbul Policy Center, who has championed for many years recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the Turkish government.

Earlier this year, Aktar wrote two compelling columns, challenging Turkish denials of the Armenian Genocide. The first, published on April 21 in “Today’s Zaman,” was titled “The 99th Anniversary.” The second column, posted on “Al Jazeera English” website on April 24, was titled “Armenian Genocide: Turkey has Lost the Battle of Truth,” and subtitled “An empowered Turkish society is now challenging the state’s denialist paradigm on the tragic events of 1915.”

In his first article, Aktar described April 24 as “a symbolic day for Armenians who were forcibly dispersed all around the world. This collective disaster is still not recognized in Turkey. Even the fact that Anatolian Armenians were completely wiped out from their homeland is not enough for people and the state to recognize it.”

Aktar went on to ridicule Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s call for a “joint historical commission,” because it would be “composed of ‘genocide experts’ on the one side and of denialist professors on the other who cannot even convene, let alone arrive at a decision.”

Ending his column on an optimistic note, Aktar observed: “Unlike the state, Turkish society is today questioning the past and searching for appropriate answers. This is the soundest and most lasting way to face the truth. Peace will not come to these lands without confronting the past. 2015 will be the year when the quest for truth and memory will deepen, even if the government does not like it.”

In the Al Jazeera article, the Turkish scholar divided his government’s denialist campaign on the Armenian Genocide into three categories: lobbying efforts jointly with Azerbaijan, especially in the United States; hiring scholars to give Turkey’s “vulgar denialism” a scientific veneer; and diverting attention away from the Armenian Genocide Centennial by focusing on other events, such as “the Dardanelles battle victory” and “the military debacle of Sarikamis.”

Despite vigorous denialist propaganda, Aktar maintained that “Turkey has long lost the battle of truth. The destruction of the Armenian population on its ancestral land is a sheer fact, whatever else you might call it.”

Aktar proceeded to describe April 24, 1915 as “the dark day when the decision to erase Armenians from Anatolia began to be implemented by the Ottoman government of Young Turks or the Ittihadists. The rationale behind it was to engineer a homogeneous population composed of Muslims designated to form the backbone of the yet to be invented Turkish nation. Thus, there was no place for Christian populations despite their historic presence on those lands.”

The Turkish scholar then referred to a “report commissioned in May 1919 by the Ottoman government that came to power in 1918 after the demise of the Young Turks,” which stated that 800,000 Armenians had lost their lives by that date. Aktar also quoted from a book published in 1928 by the Turkish General Staff which reported that “800,000 Armenians and 200,000 Greeks died as a result of massacres, forced relocations and forced labor.” Aktar concluded: “when one adds those who died after 1918 in the Caucasus region due to hunger, illness and massacres, the figure surpasses one million. The cleansing work of Ittihadists was completed by Kemalists by obliging those throughout Anatolia whose lives were spared to take shelter in Istanbul and simultaneously by suppressing their places of worship and schools throughout Anatolia.”

The audacious Turkish intellectual ends his powerful article with a note of sober realism: “The genie is out of the bottle. When and how it will affect state policy is difficult to predict.”

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: battle, lost, scholar, Turkey

Support Gagrule.net

Subscribe Free News & Update

Search

GagruleLive with Harut Sassounian

Can activist run a Government?

Wally Sarkeesian Interview Onnik Dinkjian and son

https://youtu.be/BiI8_TJzHEM

Khachic Moradian

https://youtu.be/-NkIYpCAIII
https://youtu.be/9_Xi7FA3tGQ
https://youtu.be/Arg8gAhcIb0
https://youtu.be/zzh-WpjGltY





gagrulenet Twitter-Timeline

Tweets by @gagrulenet

Archives

Books

Recent Posts

  • U.S. Judge Dismisses $500 Million Lawsuit By Azeri Lawyer Against ANCA & 29 Others
  • These Are the Social Security Offices Expected to Close This Year, Musk call SS Ponzi Scheme
  • Breaking News, Pashinyan regime has filed charges against public figure Edgar Ghazaryan,
  • ANCA’s Controversial Endorsement: Implications for Armenian Voters
  • (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli, has invited Kurdish Leader Öcalan to the Parliament “Ask to end terrorism and dissolve the PKK.”

Recent Comments

  • administrator on Turkish Agent Pashinyan will not attend the meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State
  • David on Turkish Agent Pashinyan will not attend the meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State
  • Ara Arakelian on A democratic nation has been allowed to die – the UN has failed once more “Nagorno-Karabakh”
  • DV on A democratic nation has been allowed to die – the UN has failed once more “Nagorno-Karabakh”
  • Tavo on I’d call on the people of Syunik to arm themselves, and defend your country – Vazgen Manukyan

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in