crisis Archives

Lebanon in Crisis: Saudi Arabia tells its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately

November 9, 2017 by administrator

‘Due to the circumstances in the Lebanese Republic, the kingdom asks its citizens who are visiting or residing in the country to leave it as soon as possible’

Saudi Arabia has ordered its citizens out of Lebanon amid skyrocketing tensions between their two governments.

A brief statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency called on all Saudis living in or visiting Lebanon to depart, and warned against travel to the country.

“Due to the circumstances in the Lebanese Republic, the kingdom asks its citizens who are visiting or residing” in the country to leave it as soon as possible, a Saudi Foreign Ministry source quoted by the agency said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri shocked his country Saturday when he announced in a televised statement out of Saudi Arabia that he was resigning. He has not been seen in Lebanon since.

He said his country had been taken hostage by the militant group Hezbollah, a partner in his coalition government and a major foe of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia says it considers Hezbollah’s participation in the Lebanese government an “act of war” against the kingdom.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun has said he will not consider the premier’s resignation until the two meet in person.

Also on Thursday, Mr Hariri’s political party called for his immediate return to Lebanon.

Following a meeting of his Saudi-aligned Future Party in Beirut on Thursday, the party issued a statement saying it was “necessary” for Hariri to return “to restore Lebanon’s dignity and respect.”

The statement read by former Prime Minister Fuad Saniora seemed to indicate that Mr Hariri is being held in Saudi Arabia against his will.

Mr Hariri resigned his post abruptly on Saturday in a strange, pre-recorded speech.

In his absence, Lebanon has been awash with speculation the 47-year old prime minister may be held against his will in Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials have denied Mr Hariri is under house arrest.

AP and Reuters

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Gulf crisis: Qatar’s neighbors issue ultimatum, call for Al-Jazeera shutdown & close down Turkish military Base

June 23, 2017 by administrator

Gulf crisis Qatar Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries that have broken off relations with Qatar have issued a list of demands to end a diplomatic crisis in the region, reports say. Their conditions include shutting down Al-Jazeera.

The 13-point list of demands was delivered overnight by Kuwait, which is mediating between Qatar and its neighbors on Friday.

The situation between Qatar and several Arab countries deteriorated earlier this month after Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain cut ties to Qatar over allegations the country funds terrorism. The dispute plunged Qatar into chaos and ignited the biggest diplomatic crisis in the Gulf since the 1991 war against Iraq.

Those four countries have now given Qatar 10 days to comply with all of the demands. The Associated Press, which obtained a copy of the list, reported that one of the demands called for Qatar to sever its diplomatic ties to Iran. The list also contained demands that Qatar close down a Turkish military base on its territory and shut down Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera.

Quoting sources, Al-Jazeera reported that a list had been delivered to Qatar, but the broadcaster did not elaborate on its contents.

Doha has denied financing extremism. However, it remains a key patron of the Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, and is also seen to support the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni political group that is opposed to monarchical rule, as is practiced in many nations of the Middle East.

Strict conditions

The list said Qatar owed an unspecified sum in compensation and demanded the Gulf country to cut all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups including Hezbollah, al-Qaida and the self-styled “Islamic State.”

According to the list, Qatar must refuse to naturalize citizens from the four countries and expel those currently in Qatar. It must also deliver individuals accused of terrorism in those four countries and stop funding groups that are designated as terrorist by the United States.

Earlier this week, the United States urged Qatar’s neighbors to come up with a list of demands that was “reasonable and actionable.”

If Qatar agrees to comply, The Associated Press reported, it will be audited once a month for the first year, and monitored regularly over the next 10 years. Qatar’s government did not have any immediate response to the demands.

Turkey: No plans to shut Qatar base

Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik told local broadcaster NTV on Friday that his country had no plans to review its military base in Qatar and dismissed demands for its closure as interferences in Ankara’s relations with the oil-rich Gulf state.

“The base in Qatar is both a Turkish base and one that will preserve the security of Qatar and the region,” said Isik.

On Thursday Turkey sent a small contingent of soldiers and armored vehicles to Qatar, after a fast-tracked legislative change allowed for more troops to be deployed there.

Turkey has been one of Qatar’s key backers during the crisis. Also on Thursday, it sent its first shipment of food aid to the country. Turkey had already sent more than 100 cargo planes with supplies, but Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said maintaining an airlift was not a sustainable solution.

Overall, Turkish exports to the Gulf state have tripled from their normal levels in the three weeks since the embargo began.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with Saudi leaders on how to calm tensions and come to a diplomatic solution.

No currency crisis in Armenia similar to Georgia’s, Azerbaijan’s – economist

December 18, 2016 by administrator

In an interview with Tert.am, economist Ashot Khurshudyan explained why Armenia is the only regional country without a currency crisis.

Mr Khurshudyan, the national currencies of Azerbaijan and Georgia are rapidly depreciating. Specifically, the Georgian lari has depreciated by around 60-65 percent, whereas we do not see a similar situation in Armenia.

Let us begin with the manat. Azerbaijan attempted to reserve for about three months, but failed. In Azerbaijan’s case, the reason is oil export and the aftermath of, so to say, a wrong oil policy. As a result, Azerbaijan has been swept into a vortex. And I do not think they will be able to get out of this situation. Bankrupt banks cannot pay deposits back. And the situation is obviously grave there. Georgia has been able to attract foreign funds and reduce consumption. And Georgia’s imports remained high, about US $6bn, (while Armenia’s imports have halved due to the population’s austerity), and lack of USD incomes will one day cause an outburst. Georgia tried to conceal the fact by implementing a Property against Debt program worth around US $1bn, while Armenia was once criticized over a similar program. That is, economic entities could not repay their loans. And they are now trying to improve the situation with Europe’s’ help, but they have not yet been able to. I can tell you one of the most important indicators: Georgia’s government reserve – foreign reserves/imports ratio – is for three months. In our case, it is a little more than five months because we have reduced consumption. And, to an extent, we have adjusted our imports to our incomes, which is the reason we are not faced with a currency crisis. But Georgia has two solutions: either people radically reduce their consumption, which is extremely difficult in terms of behavior – and radical measures should have been taken in proper time – or Georgia should allow further lari depreciation. But, as far as I know, Georgia has opted for a third way: borrowing huge funds from Europe, which is kind of blackmail in the context of their Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) agreement with Europe. As if they were saying to Europe: “Give us several billion for us to get out of this disgraceful situation.”
I cannot say which way Georgia will favor, but at least two of them are not good options because the first will cause an economic shock, while the second will cause problems in the future. We are not following the exchange rate and we see a critical situation.

But we, in Armenia, have seen AMD depreciation against the US dollar as well, which made forecasts of a few months come true.

Yes, economy needs it. Yes, let it depreciate. Before 2003, one US dollar cost more than 500 AMD. That is, we have much room to return to the previous level. In the other countries appreciation was not so radical, but in Armenia it was abnormally radical. In Armenia’s case it is economically beneficial. The formula is as follows: if people save their money in terms of Armenian drams, their incomes will be higher than if they saved their money in foreign currency terms to wait for further appreciation of foreign exchange.

And the chairman of the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, Parliament of Armenia, stated that the Armenian dram is the most stable currency in the region. Do you share his opinion?

Yes, I do. And thanks to our people, who have reduced their consumption this year. And we should be grateful for that. That is, a most interesting policy has been implemented, but our citizens have changed their behavior because if you do not buy your well-being goes down, which is more realistic. We did not deceive ourselves. Without incomes we could not afford luxuries. Has our life been worse? Yes, it has. But was it good living on borrowed money without being able to pay off? And it is a chance we should make a proper use of.

Anush Dashtents

Analysis: The role of Armenia in the Syrian refugee crisis

May 22, 2016 by administrator

Syrian refugees Photo Credit: Kurdnas

May 22, 2016, 8:00Pm

By Rachel Avraham

While many countries are now seeking quotas limiting Syrian immigration, Armenia has accepted numerous Syrian Armenian, Yazidi and Assyrian refugees even though they have a 17% unemployment rate and are a small country the size of the State of Maryland that is currently embroiled in a political conflict with Azerbaijan. For these refugees, despite the difficulties associated with living in Armenia, it is still better than Syria.

A recent report published by Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently highlighted that out of the 80,000 Armenians who used to live in Syria prior to the Civil War, since 2011, over 17,000 Syrians of Armenian heritage have decided to move to Armenia, where 80 percent of them have decided to remain: “Ethnic Armenians fleeing Syria are finding safe routes to their ancestral homeland, where they are welcomed, resettled and provided citizenship within a few months.”

Like the State of Israel, Armenia offers a right of return to all ethnic Armenians which seek to return to the land of their ancestors via a simplified procedure. “Armenia is home to all people of Armenian background,” said civic activist Ara Sisserian, who lives in Armenian capital city of Yerevan and advocates for newcomers from Syria. “Those Armenians coming from Syria come here because they consider this as their motherland.”

According to the Economist, Armenia, a small country the size of the State of Maryland, has accepted the third largest proportion of Syrian refugees relative to its general population. According to the Huffington Post, while most of the Syrian refugees fleeing to Armenia are Armenians, also Assyrians and Yazidis have been welcomed into the country. Anahit Khosroeva, an Assyrian community activist, leading researcher at the Institute of History and former professor of Chicago University, stated: “We were told by the migration service authorities that the Assyrians would be helped and protected in Armenia just like the Syrian Armenian refugees.”

The report stresses that the Armenian government has been providing the Syrian refugees with free health insurance, scholarships, and has been helping refugees to establish start-ups in a special program in cooperation with UNHCR. They also have an adopt-a-family program, where Syrian refugees are matched with an Armenian host family who helps them integrate into Armenia. As a result, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has thanked Armenia for their efforts. But to date, Armenia has not been receiving the foreign assistance that Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan have. Given that 17% of Armenians are unemployed and the country is presently engaged in a political conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region that has escalated in recent times, the lack of foreign assistance presents complications for the Armenian authorities in absorbing the refugees. Nevertheless, the Armenian authorities seem determined to continue assisting Syrian refugees at a time when many places are closing their doors to them.

According to Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, Armenians have a long history of living in Syria but since the civil war has broken out, the Armenian community has faced religious and social persecution. When it comes to ISIS, the Armenian community is facing genocide just like the Yazidis are. “The Armenian population has dramatically dropped,” Reverend Haroutioun Selimian, head of a relief organization for Syrian Armenians in Aleppo, told VOA. “Their rights are being violated and their lives are at risk… Ninety Armenian churches are completely or partially destroyed.”

A report from Christian Today earlier this month highlighted that ISIS has been torching Christian homes, raping and torturing Christian girls, and slaughtering them while leaving their disfigured body parts in plastic bags for their relatives to discover. Other Christians have been forced to convert to Islam, beheaded, crucified and deported. The more fortunate ones are forced to wear Islamic dress and pay the Jizya tax while their land is confiscated and the people are utilized as human shields in order to protect ISIS terrorists from the International Coalition against ISIS. According to the US Congress and US Secretary of State John Kerry, these actions constitute genocide.

According to the Armenian National Committee of America: “ANCA welcomes the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s passage of H.Con.Res.75 as an important step in elevating our government’s response to genocide from a political choice to a moral imperative. We cannot continue to treat the recognition of genocide as a geopolitical commodity, to be bartered or bargained away. Our stand against genocide must be unconditional.”

Given these conditions, many Syrian Armenians are desperately seeking to reach Armenia. During the beginning of the Civil War, there were direct flights between Aleppo and Yerevan but those have since been cut off. Now, Armenians are forced to utilize under-ground smuggling networks to Lebanon and from there, they can fly to Armenia.

One of the Syrian Armenians who has recently settled in Yerevan is Adriana: “Contrary to our advice from our local Armenian leaders asking us to stay, my husband and I lost our patience and fled Aleppo in December. We drove our car all the way to the border. With the help of an underground Armenian escape network, we managed to cross the border. After spending almost three months in Lebanon, we flew to Armenia.” According to her, she finally feels safe for when she was leaving Syria, ISIS was approaching their neighborhood. For Armenians like Adriana and her husband, despite the difficulties associated with living in Armenia, it is still significantly better than Syria and many other Middle Eastern countries.

Thomas de Waal: Why we need to contain the Caucasus crisis

May 7, 2016 by administrator

f572dab4af1657_572dab4af1696.thumb “Four days of violence in April unfroze the generation-old Nagorno-Karabakh conﬂict. It is no exaggeration to say that Armenia and Azerbaijan are two or three steps away from a Bosnia-style conﬂict that could be deleterious for the wider region,” writes Senior Associate at Carnegie Europe Thomas de Waal in Politico.

“Can this crisis be contained before it escalates? We ﬁrst need to challenge one common preconception: the idea that Russia can ﬁll that security vacuum and manage the conﬂict. Its problem is that it has simultaneously mediated and destabilized the conﬂict. The Russians have been selling arms to both sides. An estimated 85 percent of Azerbaijan’s weaponry comes from Russia, while Russia has a military alliance with Armenia, sealed by a new treaty signed in 2010.

“This balancing game means that Russia is unable to set the agenda in Karabakh. Both Baku and Yerevan are skeptical of Russia’s intentions.

“In Armenia especially, the new backlash against Russia is signiﬁcant. Because Russia has no military presence on the ground and no monopoly on the peace process, both countries can block plans for a Russian peace-keeping force that would reassert its inﬂuence in the region.

“So the common belief that, if things get worse “Russia can handle it,” is misplaced. This poses a challenge to the United States and France. Neither has done enough to offer a balanced international plan,” Tom de Waal writes.

“Unless progress is made now, more ﬁghting is likely to break out after the international spectacle of Azerbaijan’s much-coveted Formula 1 race in Baku ends in late June,” concludes the author.

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Syria: About 50Mln Barrels of Oil Stolen by Daesh During Civil War “$46 billion of oil revenues lost”

December 11, 2015 by administrator

The Islamic State has stolen some 50 million barrels of Syrian oil during the four-year civil war in the country, the press service of the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said Friday.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — The press service said that terrorist groups controlled the number of oil fields in country’s provinces of Raqqah, Homs, Al-Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor, adding that the majority of these fields were on the territory, occupied by the ISIL militants.

“Overall amount of the oil stolen from the fields from the beginning of the crisis to November, 2015,… reached 48 million barrels,” the press service told RIA Novosti.

According to the ministry, Syria has lost some $46 billion of oil revenues during the crisis.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, ISIL, which is outlawed in in the country, earns around $2 billion annually selling oil from the occupied territories, spending these funds on hiring militants from around the world and equipping them with weapons.

Asking for Trouble: Erdogan Drags Europe Into New ‘Cuban Missile Crisis’?

November 29, 2015 by administrator

Turkey’s “unprecedented” provocation could well lead to a standoff reminiscent of the darkest days of the Cold War, political analyst Pyotr Iskenderov asserted, adding that by downing the Russian Su-24 bomber Ankara managed to achieve the unthinkable: it “outperformed” the Soviet Union’s archrival.

“It also proves the existence of a very dangerous geopolitical trend directly related to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which have already become NATO or EU members, or cherish the dream of joining these organizations (often at any price),” the expert wrote for the Strategic Culture Foundation.

Turkey, according to Iskenderov, decided to shoot down the Russian bomber because President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is confident that NATO and particularly the US will back him no matter what happens. Moreover, “the desire to exploit the contradictions between great powers has always been an instrument of the (Neo)Ottoman Empire’s policy,” he explained in an article titled “Turkey Paves Way for Another Cuban Crisis.”

In addition, Turkey does not want the Syrian crisis to be resolved and is ready to add fuel to the fire if necessary, the analyst stated. Protracted civil war in the neighboring country will allow Ankara to continue its illegal oil business with ISIL. It is also trying to pit the radical group against the Kurds as much as possible.

ISIL’s defeat, according to the analyst, does not suit Turkey. “It also does not serve the interests of the United States implementing its strategy of controlled chaos and geopolitical isolation of Russia,” Iskenderov observed.

The downing of the Russian bomber, which was engaged in an anti-ISIL operation, cast a shadow on the already strained relations between Moscow and Western capitals. Therefore, preventing Erdogan from dragging Turkey and other European countries “into a new Cuban crisis” is a priority, the analyst emphasized.

“It should be noted that … as the crisis of 1962 unfolded the opposing sides did not bring down each other’s aircraft. These days, Turkey has ‘outperformed’ even the United States of the Cold War era,” Iskenderov added.

Turkey is Playing the Worst Part of Syrian Crisis – Assad

November 19, 2015 by administrator

Syrian President Bashar Assad believes that by being passively supporting the al-Nusra Front and Islamic State terrorist groups, Turkey is playing a most destructive role in the Syrian crisis.

“Turkey is playing a most negative role in our crisis. That’s related directly to [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan himself and [Prime Minister Ahmet] Davutoglu, because they both reflect the real ideology that they carry in their hearts, which is the Muslim Brotherhood ideology,” Assad said in an interview with the French newsmagazine Valeurs Actuelles on Thursday.

The Syrian leader emphasized that, compared to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Ankara was playing the most dangerous role in general, by giving all possible assistance to the terrorists.

“Some countries support the Nusra Front, which is al-Qaeda, some other countries support ISIL, while Turkey supports both and other groups at the same time. They support them with, human resources. They support them with money, logistics, armaments, surveillance, information, and even the maneuvers of their military through their borders during the fights in Syria.”

“Even the money that’s being collected from the rest of the world passes through Turkey, and the oil that ISIL sells is through Turkey, so Turkey is playing the worst part of our crisis,” Assad was quoted as saying by the Syrian news agency SANA.

Source: sputniknews

International negotiations on Syrian crisis open in Austrian capital

October 30, 2015 by administrator

A fresh round of international talks aimed at resolving the ongoing crisis in Syria has started in the Austrian capital city of Vienna, with representatives from the Islamic Republic of Iran attending the conference.

Apart from the Islamic Republic, the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, representatives from at least 12 other countries are also attending the talks. Those states are France, Germany, Egypt, Russia, Jordan, the UK, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iraq, Lebanon, China and Oman.

Envoys from the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) are also present at the talks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif heads Iran’s delegation during the one-day talks.

Past failure without Iran

Previous talks on Syria, mediated by the UN and dubbed Geneva I and II, failed to find a solution to end the conflict in the Arab country. Iran had not been invited to any of the talks.

The two conferences ended in failure after the foreign-sponsored opposition figures in the talks refused to discuss widespread terrorism in the country and persisted in demanding the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a precondition.

The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and left over one million injured, according to UN.

The world body says 12.2 million people, including more than 5.6 million children, remain in need of humanitarian assistance.

The foreign-sponsored militancy has displaced 7.6 million people.

Not too hopeful about the Syria talks

In an exclusive interview with Press TV’s Website on Friday, journalist and blogger Richard Silverstein described the Vienna talks on the Syrian crisis a “hopeful sign,” especially in the wake of the ongoing foreign-sponsored militancy in Syria and the influx of Syrian refugees into Europe.

He, however, cast doubt on the possible outcome of the negotiations due to the miscellany of the interests of the parties involved, and their conflicting nature in some cases.

Silverstein pointed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program as well as regional issues, noting that the agreement has paved the way for possible cooperation between Tehran and Washington on a number of issues to do with Middle East, and Iran’s stronger role as a regional player.

US shifting stance on Assad?

Separately, Kentucky-based political commentator John Miranda told Press TV’s Website that he expects that, at the end of the Vienna talks, US officials would drop their demand that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must leave power.

He also said that the Damascus government would seek broader assistance from Iran in the fight against militant groups wreaking havoc on Syrian soil.

Zarif and his US and Russian counterparts, John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov, met in Vienna on Thursday evening ahead of the negotiations.

The Iranian foreign minister also met EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. Their talks focused both on the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program as well as regional issues.

Terrorist State of Turkey: Schools in crisis in south-east as conflict with Kurds flares up

October 24, 2015 by administrator

The renewed conflict in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast has wreaked havoc on the schooling system in the region, Al Monitor reports.

Many teachers from western Turkey, appointed to schools in the region after a long wait, have refused to go to their places of duty, while those who did are working in a state of edginess.

In mid-September, the government made 35,563 new appointments to 37,000 teaching vacancies, and 67% of them were to schools in the southeast.

A survey by the Education and Science Laborers Union (Egitim-Sen), conducted early September among 1,087 teachers in 10 eastern and southeastern provinces, found that 32% of them consider quitting the profession. One in every three teachers in Hakkari and Sirnak, two of the provinces worst affected by the unrest, have already requested reappointment this year, according to Sakine Esen Yilmaz, secretary-general of Egitim-Sen, which has 127,000 members across Turkey.

The trade union’s report made available to Al-Monitor says 89% of teachers in the southeast believe the schooling process cannot function properly under the current conditions. A total of 83% are unhappy in the region, including 42% who are seeking reappointment to other provinces and 41% who say they are unwilling to work in the region.

Yilmaz told Al-Monitor that 38% of the respondents worried for their safety and that there was a quick turnover of teachers in the southeast.

“We tried to measure how the conflict has affected education practitioners and to show what consequences the crisis has had and can have in the coming days. This year, some 36,000 new teachers were appointed. Yet, these education workers, who had waited for years to be appointed, are now in the grips of anxiety. Many are unwilling to go to the region, while those who did want to leave,” Yilmaz said.

Egitim-Sen’s survey asked teachers seeking reappointment why they wanted to leave. The question generated some striking answers such as, “I don’t like the place,” “I don’t like the local people” and “I don’t want to work with the local people.”