Karabakh OSCE monitoring reveals no violation of cease-fire regime

July 23, 2015 By administrator

STEPANAKERT. – The OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the eastern direction of the Talish village of the NKR Martakert region on Wednesday in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistants of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Khristo Khristov (Bulgaria) and Jiri Aberle (Czech Republic).

From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Yevgeny Sharov (Ukraine) and Personal Assistant to the Personal Representative of the CiO Simon Tiller (Great Britain)

The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule. No violation of the cease-fire regime was registered.

From the Karabakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense.

Source: NEWS.am

Yerevan: U.S. Embassy Helps Boost Security at Armenian Border

May 23, 2015 By administrator

U.S. Ambassador Richard M. Mills Jr. watches a presentation by Armenian Border Guard officers

YEREVAN—In a ceremony at the Armenia Border Guard headquarters, U.S. Ambassador Richard M. Mills Jr., joined by National Security Service Deputy Director Lieutenant General Arzuman Harutyunyan and Border Guard Troops Commander Major General Armen Abrahamyan, inspected equipment from the U.S. government that will assist the border guards in keeping weapons of mass destruction, biological hazards, and other threats from crossing Armenia’s borders. The equipment includes a multi-media lab that will be used in training Armenian border guards and other tools that will enhance the ability of border guards to control the flow of sensitive exports across the board and strengthen Armenia’s borders against transnational threats.

This assistance is part of the U.S. Government’s comprehensive nonproliferation programs that strengthen the ability of the Armenian Government to effectively counter transnational threats from international crime, arms smugglers, and risks from weapons of mass destruction. The United States and Armenia are working together toward common goals of democracy, security, and peace, both in Armenia and in the region.

Over the past ten years, the U.S. Embassy has partnered with various ministries and agencies to develop Armenia’s border security capacity. Leading the U.S. Embassy’s efforts in Armenia are the Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) program, the Defense Threat Reduction Office (DTRO), and Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC). “Our border security cooperation is robust, and we are committed to an open door partnership with Armenia,” said Ambassador Mills during his remarks.

Armenian diaspora calls on Turkey to open border and archives

March 31, 2015 By administrator

Delegates of the 4th Congress of Western Armenians released a list of demands from the Turkish Republic in Paris on Sunday, including the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border and providing unlimited access to historical archives.

The descendants of Armenians who were living and persecuted during the Ottoman Empire have made the following demands of the Turkish government: “Open the Turkish border with the Republic of Armenia immediately and without preconditions and initiate a number of steps for the establishment of interstate confidence and friendly relations with the authorities and population of the Armenian state, among whom live hundreds of thousands of descendants of Western Armenians.”

The delegation also called for unlimited access to historical archives from the Ottoman Empire, stating this is “necessary for the re-establishment of the rights of Western Armenians. This should include all cadastre and civil state archives, in addition to all information related to our moral and material losses (damages incurred whether pecuniary or non-pecuniary) and relevant rights.”

On March 19, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed the Armenian diaspora, saying: “Oh, Armenian diaspora, oh, Armenian administration, our archives are here. We have hundreds of thousands of documents, over a million documents. How many documents do you have? Bring your documents, and we will task the historians, our historians, political scientists, even archeologists and lawyers [with studying them]… let’s seek the truth here,” he said, adding that “anti-Turkey campaigns carried out by paying money and forming lobbies will not earn you anything.”

The memorandum published by the Armenian congress also called for the recognition of the National Congress of Western Armenians as a legal entity in Turkey, and that it is the indisputable right for the Armenian ethnic entity to return to their homeland and rehabilitate all community properties such as schools and churches.

VATICAN: Bishop accuses Turkey over Syrian Christians

February 25, 2015 By administrator

VATICAN CITY – Agence France-Presse

In this image posted on a militant social media account by the Al-Baraka division of the Islamic State group on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015, a fighter fires a heavy weapon mounted on the back of a pickup truck during fighting in Tal Tamr, Hassakeh province, Syria. AP Photo

A prominent bishop on Feb. 25 accused Turkey of preventing Christians from fleeing Syria while allowing jihadists responsible for their persecution to cross its border unchecked.

Jacques Behnan Hindo, the Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Hasakeh-Nisibi, made the claim on Vatican Radio, a day after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group abducted at least 90 Assyrian Christians from villages which had been under the control of Kurdish forces.

“Every day, families are emigrating from Damascus by plane because of the blockade we have around us,” the bishop said.

“In the north, Turkey allows through lorries, Daesh (ISIL) fighters, oil stolen from Syria, wheat and cotton: all of these can cross the border but nobody [from the Christian community] can pass over.”
The abducted Christians were part of Syria’s tiny Assyrian community, which is mostly based in Hasakeh province near the Turkish border.

There were just 30,000 Assyrians in Syria before the country’s conflict erupted in March 2011.

At that point Syria had an estimated total Christian population of around 1.2 million people. Pope Francis is among those who have voiced fears the community could be decimated by mass emigration as a result of the conflict.

Control of Hasakeh is currently divided between Kurdish forces, who in some places patrol with regime troops, and ISIL fighters.

The bishop said he was hopeful the ISIL offensive which led to the kidnappings would soon be over “because the Kurds are gathering their forces to go and fight them.”

The Kurdish forces have been backed by US-led airstrikes against ISIL targets.

February/25/2015

Syria, The army advance to cut the road between Aleppo to Turkey

February 17, 2015 By administrator

Syrian government forces advanced Tuesday to the north of the northern city of Aleppo with the aim to cut the supply route of the rebels with neighboring Turkey, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
According to the organization, they took the towns of Bashkawi and Sefat (7 km north of Aleppo), and fighting continues to fully block the supply route, which will lead hermetic siege of

Ara / armenews

Syria accuses Turkey of aiding terrorists

January 12, 2015 By administrator

The Syrian government has accused Turkey of allowing “terrorists” to freely cross the border after Ankara said the common-law wife of one of the Paris attackers entered Syria from Turkey earlier this month, The Associated Press reported.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Monday that the woman, Hayat Boumedienne, arrived in Turkey from Madrid on Jan. 2 before crossing into Syria on Jan. 8, the day after the attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Turkey is a strong backer of Syrian rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad, whose government views all of its armed opponents as “terrorists.”

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Monday that Turkey had aided terrorists who “shed the blood of Syrians and innocent people worldwide” and called on the international community “to stop Turkey’s destructive policy.”

German intel chief urges Turkey to prevent extremists crossing into Syria

January 12, 2015 By administrator

Germany’s domestic intelligence chief on Monday, Jan 12, urged Turkey to do more to prevent extremists crossing into Syria to join the Islamic State group and other terrorist organizations.

Authorities say that at least 550 people from Germany have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join extremist groups, along with more from several other European countries. Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, said Turkey is a “key country” because well over 90 percent of the radicals traveled via the country.

While efforts to stop extremists crossing into Syria are partially successful, the number that have arrived remains too high — “so it is all the more necessary that the Turks take further measures,” Maassen told ARD television.

Turkey says the common-law wife of one of last week’s attackers in France arrived in Turkey on Jan 2 and crossed into Syria on Thursday, the day after the massacre at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, later Monday rejected any suggestion that Turkey is doing too little against terrorism.

He pointed to the large number of foreigners who travel to Turkey, a popular tourist destination, and said that “we evaluate every tip that we get and our intelligence services work together.”

Turkey has issued entry bans against 7,000 people and sent between 1,500 and 2,000 back to their home countries, including people from France and Germany, he said.

Turkey police clash with Kurds at border

October 29, 2014 By administrator

Turkish police have clashed with people gathering at a border gate to welcome Iraqi Kurdish fighters bound for the flashpoint Syrian town of Kobani to fight the ISIL terrorists.

Late on Tuesday, Turkish security forces fired teargas to disperse people gathering at Turkish-Iraqi border crossing of Habur, where a military convoy of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government forces, known as Peshmerga, should bypass to enter Syria.

The clashes occurred despite the fact that Ankara said it would allow the Peshmerga to enter Kobani through the Turkish border.

More than 70 Peshmerga forces have just flown into Turkey and will soon be crossing the border and heading to Kobani — the town besieged by militants with the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group.

The Takfiri group launched its offensive on Kobani and nearby Syrian villages in mid-September. More than 800 people have been killed on both sides. The militants captured dozens of Kurdish villages around Kobani and control parts of the town.

Other Kurdish fighters are heading to Turkey via land before their deployment. Syrian Kurds had for long been appealing to fellow Kurds in Iraq to send reinforcements.

Analysts say Ankara, having already won the US green light, plans to let the terrorists seize the Kurdish town of Kobani before sending tanks and troops to fight them in a bid to capture and possibility annex the Syrian territory.

Oh what a lovely war! Remarkable video shows ISIS fighters strolling right up Turkish border checkpoint for a relaxing chat with guards

October 28, 2014 By administrator

By John Hall for MailOnline

Amateur footage shows militants casually wandering up to Turkish border
Pair display shocking bravado waving at camera while carrying large guns
Greeted at border by Turkish security officials who break into conversation
Group chat for a short time before fighters wander back towards Kobane
Militants heard chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and making jihadist hand gestures
Video raises new questions over Turkish border guards’ relations with ISIS

A remarkable video has emerged purporting to show Islamic State militants chatting casually with a group of Turkish border guards near the besieged Syrian city of Kobane.

The amateur footage, understood to have been filmed close to Zarova Hill in the outskirts of Kobane, raises serious questions about the apparently relaxed relationship between the terror group and officials from the Nato member state.

It appears to show two heavily armed militants wandering nonchalantly up to the Turkish border fence – displaying shocking bravado as they smile and wave at the camera.

They are met by what appears to be a military vehicle full of security officials who, despite carrying weapons themselves, do little more than break into conversation with the jihadis, who eventually wander off back into Syria while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’.

As they reach the border fence, an armoured military vehicle belonging to Turkish border guards speeds up to meet them. Heavily armed officials jump out the back of the car and – after briefly talking on their radios, simply engage the men in conversation.

At one point the situation appears tense and a border guard scampers towards the militants with his gun briefly raised, but he stops seconds later and also begins talking to the men.

After several minutes chatting, the militants wander off, defiantly raising their index finger to the sky to represent jihadism while chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ – a phrase that translates as ‘God is the greatest’.

Syrian Kurdish woman Giving birth safely over the border, names Obama to say thanks for US airstrikes

October 26, 2014 By administrator

Sultan Muslim and her family escaped ISIS’s siege of Kobane and fled to the border
After reaching the border town of Suruc, Muslim gave birth to her seventh child and named him Muhammed Obama Muslim
The family says they are grateful for coalition airstrikes and hope US assistance will allow them to return home safely

By Pete D’amato for MailOnline

A pregnant Syrian Kurdish woman who fled ISIS and made it safely to Turkey named her newborn Obama out of gratitude for US-led airstrikes.

Sultan Muslim, her husband and their children were on the run for a month after fleeing the besieged border town of Kobane.

When they arrived at a refugee camp in Suruc, the family welcomed their newest addition and Muslim named him after the American president, because of the US’s air campaign against ISIS.

Newborn: Sultan Muslim, a mother of seven, named her four-day-old child Muhammed Obama Muslim to offer thanks for US assistance in fighting ISIS

‘I gave my son this name from my heart. I will never change this name,’ Muslim told Agence France-Presse, having given birth on Wednesday.

‘He dispatched planes, aid for us. Because of his help maybe we will get rid of this cruelty and get back to our homes,’ she added.

‘We named him Muhammed Obama Muslim,’ said Mahmut Beko, the boy’s father.

‘We want Obama to help us so that we can get back home. We are also human beings. We, the Kurds, attacked whom, fight against whom?’ he asked incredulously.

Brutal fighting between the Islamist extremist group ISIS and Syrian Kurdish militias known as the YPG has engulfed the border town of Kobane as ISIS militants attempt to rout YPG fighters.

A US-led coalition has attacked ISIS forces with airstrikes, which has weakened but not destroyed ISIS fighting power.

We were stranded at the border for days, without water or food,’ said Muslim. ‘We did not take any clothes to wear. We did not have any blankets. I was pregnant and had no chance of taking a bath.’

Many Kurds view American aid as crucial in keeping out the tide of ISIS extremists.

‘Like the Americans, the whole world should help the Kurds in Kobane. We have no true friends other than the Americans,’ said Turkish Kurd Selami Altay.

Along with many other Kurds in the region, Altay watched the fighting in Kobane from a hilltop overlooking Syria.

At the sight of new airstrikes, which have so far reportedly killed more than 500 ISIS fighters, the crowd erupted in cheers and chanted, ‘Obama, Obama.’