Paris: CCAF denounces dangerous methods of Azerbaijan’s ambassador to France

January 4, 2017 By administrator

The CCAF is deeply shocked by the content and form of the letter sent by Mr Amirbayov, Ambassador of Azerbaijan in France to Mr Claude Goasguen, Mayor of the 16th arrondissement of Paris and Mr Patrick Karam, President of the Chredo (coordination Of Christians of Orients in danger) and vice-president of the Regional Council of Île-de-France.

He denounced the pressure of a representative of a foreign State on elected representatives of the Republic, as well as the many counter-truths with which this text unworthy of a diplomatic representation on French territory was littered. This rather disgusted reaction of Azerbaijan to a conference on the Egyptians of Egypt at the mayor’s office of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, which had only scratched in less than a minute the question of Nagorno-Karabakh , Speaks volumes about the fanaticism of this state which may regulate freedom of expression in France, if it can not muzzle it in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Mr. Patrick Karam, in his firm, politically substantiated and historically substantiated reply, dismantled this gross disinformation step by step, while recalling in his conclusion that “using force to maintain Nagorno Karabakh in an attachment that the population Rejects with the last energy is vain and morally indefensible “. We thank him for that.

This affair raises the question of the presence in France of this ambassador who goes beyond his prerogatives once again. During a televised debate on France 24 with Mourad Papazian, co-president of the CCAF, he allowed himself to call this French citizen “enemy” of his country. Today he recidivates by sending his staff to attend a conference to which he was not invited, then pressing his organizers and conveying under a pseudo appearance of tolerance, an anti-Armenian message as hateful as false. It does not seem to us that such behavior, even if it takes a model of the brutality of the Azerbaijani State, corresponds to the usages of diplomatic life on the national territory. Accordingly, the CFC calls on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be vigilant and firm on the dangerous methods of Mr. Amirbayov.

Wednesday 4 January 2017,
Ara © armenews.com

All for One: Holy Father Seeks Unity, Dangerous Peripheries with Armenia Trip

June 22, 2016 By administrator

Catholicos Kerekin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican on May 8, 2014.

NEWS ANALYSIS: With this week’s trip and a second one to neighboring Azerbaijan and Georgia in September, the Pope will visit a Caucasus region that’s considered a dangerous regional flashpoint.

by VICTOR GAETAN

In a season dominated by headlines about violence, anger, and disunity, Pope Francis heads to Armenia for three days, June 24-26, to underscore Christian collaboration and common roots.

It’s not a papal cakewalk though.

Armenia is engaged in a long simmering war with Azerbaijan, a “frozen conflict” that flared again in April. These countries have complex relations with their powerful neighbors, Russia and Turkey, which have had deadly clashes this year too.

On Sunday, Pope Francis will approach the long closed Armenian-Turkish border, symbol of 100-plus years of distrust.

Armenia, with Azerbaijan and Georgia — two countries Francis will visit in September — comprise a region known as the Caucasus, considered a dangerous potential flashpoint by many analysts.

For the Pope, that’s all the more reason to pour out Christ’s love, starting with Armenia, the first country to officially adopt Christianity, in 301 AD, long before the Roman Empire did in 380 AD.

Cathedral, sign a joint statement with Kerekin II, and visit the sacred site, Khor Virap Monastery, where St. Gregory was imprisoned for 14 years by a king he would later convert.

The Holy Father’s itinerary has him flying to another city, Gyumri, to say Mass in a region where more Catholics live, but Catholic Catholicos Gregory Peter XX Ghabroyan, age 81, elected last July is not listed on the most recent Vatican Radio trip schedule.

Following a Saint

As is often the case, Pope Francis is following closely the footsteps of St. John Paul II, who came to Armenia in 2001 to celebrate 1,700 years of Christian history.

St. John Paul opened his trip in the Apostolic Cathedral, participated in a divine liturgy with Catholicos Kerekin II, and honored victims of the genocide by visiting Yerevan’s Tzitzernakaberd Memorial, as Francis will do Saturday morning.

The saint even referred to the first genocide of the twentieth century in a joint written document released with Catholicos Kerekin.

However, Pope Francis was the first pope to say the word “genocide” out loud, at a memorial Mass for Armenian victims last April at St. Peter’s Basilica.

The government of Turkey, which strenuously denies a genocide against Armenia ever occurred, recalled its Ambassador to the Vatican for consultations following the Pope’s Divine Mercy statement on Armenia.

And earlier this month, the German parliament overwhelmingly approved a resolution on the Armenian genocide despite Turkish government warnings that it would harm bilateral relations.

As a result, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recalled Turkey’s Ambassador and some German MPs received protection after receiving death threats.

Turkey’s extreme sensitivity to criticism seems illogical considering the three Ottoman leaders who initiated the massacres were sentenced to death for war crimes and mass murder by a Turkish military tribunal in 1919.

Healing Wounds

Thanking the Pope for his support is one reason massive throngs are expected to greet the Holy Father throughout his pilgrimage.

Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, helped organize St. John Paul II’s pilgrimage to Armenia and has been involved in Pope Francis’ visit since Catholicos Kerekin invited the Pope during a meeting at the Vatican in 2014.

Archbishop Barsamian sees three primary messages being conveyed by Pope Francis’s presence: the beauty of Christian unity, the importance of protecting Christianity in the Middle East, and the right method for healing historic wounds.

“As in 2001 when Pope John Paul II came, signifying our close relationship, this visit brings the churches together,” the Archbishop told the Register. “We have had many years of theological dialogue between the Catholic and Oriental Orthodox Church. Dialogue is more powerful by demonstrating unity. We are the Church of Jesus Christ!”

He continued, “This visit will be important because the Holy Father is visiting one of the ancient Christ churches, surrounded by non-Christian forces. His visit is a sign of support not only for Christian faithful in Armenia but to Christian families in the Middle East, who are suffering so greatly.”

Reflecting on the significance of Pope Francis’ remarks April 12, 2015, during a Solemn Mass for the Centenary of the Armenian Martyrdom, the bishop reminded us that the Pope’s purpose in referring to the genocide was to “recognize the wounds so such things will not happen in other parts of the world today.”

Indeed, the Holy Father memorably exclaimed, “Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it,” at the beginning of the celebration, held on Divine Mercy Sunday last year.

Archbishop Barsamian said he expects big crowds during the visit because Armenians want to “express their gratitude for such a courageous statement” which caused “the entire world to respond.”

A Long-Standing Appreciation

Pope Francis will be plunging into a culture he has appreciated and honored since serving as Auxiliary Bishop in Buenos Aires, according to Archbishop Kissag Mouradian, Primate of the Apostolic Armenian Church of the Republic of Argentina and Chile.

Archbishop Mouradian became friendly with Bishop Jorge Bergoglio, who he remembers as being extremely sympathetic both to the history of Armenian persecution and to the community’s perseverance in faith.

The Argentinian Catholic leader held requiem masses for Armenian martyrs at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Argentina’s capital city and participated in Armenian celebrations. He invited the Apostolic Archbishop to consecrate with him altars to Saints Thaddeus and Bartholomew, apostles who traveled in Armenia, at two Catholic churches.

In 2010, now serving as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Bergoglio placed a traditional Armenian carved cross, a “khackar,” in the cathedral in remembrance of the dead.

According to Syrian-born Archbishop Mouradian, who came to Argentina in 1975, the future pope even said he hoped to be buried under the cathedral’s khackar.

Pope Francis is firm on the importance of recognizing the Armenian genocide to benefit both the Armenian and the Turkish people, His attitude is “Truth is always better than trying to deny or lie,” explained the archbishop to an Armenian news agency.

Since the Pope has this conviction, he is prepared to face reactions such as the Turkish government’s protest last year.

The Armenian people are spread around the world, mainly as a result of the twentieth century’s first genocide, in 1915-1923, when Ottoman leaders initiated a brutal attempt to wipe them out. Some 1.5 million Armenians were murdered and hundreds of thousands were forced out of Anatolia, part of eastern Turkey today.

Religious identity is one of the major explanations for how Armenians have maintained strong cultural continuity, generation after generation, wherever they live.

Some 93% of Armenian people belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, an Oriental Orthodox Church.

Only about 5% worldwide belong to the Armenian Catholic Church — and 1% of Armenia’s national population according to a 2011 census — in communion with the Holy See since the 18th century, and based in Beirut, Lebanon.

The Armenian Apostolic Church is centered in Holy Etchmiadzin, its spiritual center since the fourth century, a dynamic locus of faith and formation: From there, priests are trained and sent around the world to minister to the diaspora.

St. Gregory the Illuminator, Armenia’s first bishop, founded Etchmiadzin in 305 AD.

Orthodox Itinerary

What’s striking about Pope Francis’ itinerary is the extent to which the Armenian Apostolic Church is hosting him.

Even the official logo for the visit highlights the two churches: the Vatican coat of arms on a field of yellow, and the coat of arms of the Apostolic Church on purple, its traditional color.

The Pope arrives Friday and a half hour later, will be praying at the Apostolic Cathedral with Catholicos Kerekin II. (Armenian heads of church are called “Catholicos,” a word derived from the same Greek root for “Catholic,” or universal.) The day will end with a private meeting between the two leaders.

Together, they are expected to officiate over an ecumenical prayer for peace Saturday evening in Yerevan’s Republic Square.

The next morning, Pope Francis is scheduled to participate in a Divine Liturgy at the Apostolic,

Observed Pope Francis’ old friend, “He was ready to face Turkey. He always told the truth and was in favor of justice. He is very brave and very convinced of his convictions, they will not change for anything. He is firm with justice and truth.”

Tension in the Caucasus

What makes the geo-political atmosphere in the Caucasus particularly tense is the standoff between Russia and Turkey using proxy states, respectively predominantly Christian Armenia and predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan.

Last Nov. 24, the Turkish military shot down a Russian military jet. Since then, Russian sanctions against Turkey, and Turkey’s escalating accusations against Armenia, a Russian ally, have revived the specter of war in the region.

Armenia controls a mountainous territory containing130,000 people in Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies within Azerbaijani borders. War over this enclave waged from 1988 to 1994. A Russian base in Armenia has provided some stability but if Turkey throws military weight behind its ally, Muslim-majority Azerbaijan, the fragile peace that has lasted for over 20 years could fracture in a monumentally dangerous way.

It is into this caldron that Pope Francis steps.

Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 2, the Pope will make an apostolic visit to Georgia and Azerbaijan, both countries visited by St. John Paul II.

As in Armenia, the Holy See has good relations with the Orthodox Church in Georgia, led by Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II — one of four Orthodox leaders boycotting this week’s Holy and Great Council in Crete.

Less than 1% of the Georgian population is Catholic. Last year, Pope Francis met with Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili, elected in 2014.

Does the Holy See have any cards to play in Azerbaijan?

Yes. The two states entered a diplomatic agreement only five years ago, and have shared a flurry of events and exchanges since.

Azerbaijan is one of only a few a majority Shia Muslim countries in the world. The Catholic Church has cultivated strong relations with Shia Muslim countries around the world, especially in Iran.

At the ordination of a new Armenian Catholic bishop being sent to Istafan, Iran from Beirut last year, a Church official told the Register, “Do people in the West realize we have Catholic Armenian communities in Iran? Do they care? Our faith has helped us survive and the Holy See, discreet but everywhere present, is a key advocate, not just for Catholics but the entire Christian world.”

Senior Register correspondent Victor Gaetan is an award-winning

international correspondent and a contributor to Foreign Affairs magazine.

Source:cregister.com/

Saudi, Turkey, Qatar behind dangerous escalation: Syria

May 24, 2016 By administrator

Syria has written to to the United Nations, blaming Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar for Monday terrorist bombings which killed at leas 154 people in the coastal cities of in Tartous and Jableh.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry sent a letter to the United Nations, saying the blasts are a “dangerous escalation by the hostile and extremist regimes in Riyadh, Ankara and Doha.”

The letter said the three countries seek to derail UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva and frustrate efforts to stop bloodshed in Syria as well as undermine “remarkable achievements” of the Syrian army against terrorists.

The ministry said the Security Council’s inaction in the face of “heinous crimes being perpetrated by foreign-sponsored terrorist groups across Syria has emboldened those regimes that support terrorism to deploy their terrorist pawns to Syria.”

The letter also criticized Britain, France and the US over their refusal to label Jaysh al-Islam and al-Qaeda-affiliated Ahrar al-Sham as terrorist groups, saying the approach speaks to their lack of seriousness in fighting terrorism.

Bombings and terrorist attacks, the letter said, will not dent Syria’s determination to combat terrorism.

It urged the UN Security Council to adopt immediate punitive measures against the states that sponsor terrorism and undermine international peace and security.

More than 300 people were also wounded in the Monday attacks in the Mediterranean coastal cities, some of them critically, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Lebanese Hezbollah movement condemned the deadly bombings in a statement, saying they called for a clear and resolute stance against regional and global powers supporting terrorism.

“These genocides, which are being carried out by Takfiri groups with backing and support by international secret services and with a cover by well-known Arab officials and countries, are the result of a dark ideology that aims to spread fear and chaos in our Arab and Muslim societies.”

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Damascus says Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar are the main supporters of the militants fighting the government forces.

United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the Syrian crisis.

Turkey and Syria Erdogan’s dangerous gambit

July 31, 2015 By administrator

By bombing the Kurds, as well as Islamic State, Turkey is adding to the chaos in the Middle East economist.com report

TURKEY’S allies in the West have felt increasingly queasy about its wayward president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. At home he has become authoritarian and wants to change the constitution to give himself more power. Abroad he has been indulgent towards militants passing through his country to fight in Syria. In the year since the jihadists of Islamic State (IS) declared their caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, and America gathered a coalition to “degrade and ultimately destroy” them, Mr Erdogan has refused to let NATO allies use Turkish bases.

Perhaps he feared that the jihadists would target Turkey. Or perhaps he thought they were useful pawns in the violent geopolitics of the Middle East. Such illusions should have been blown away on July 20th, when a suicide-bomber killed 32 people in Suruc, a Turkish town on the border with Syria. Within days Turkey said it would allow America to use its base at Incirlik, and its own jets bombed IS. There is now talk of creating a buffer zone in Syria to cut off IS’s last supply lines.

Many hope Mr Erdogan has at last had a moment of clarity about the IS menace. So far, though, he has only added to the murk of the region’s wars. His air force has mostly bombed the Kurds who, in various guises, have proved to be the most resolute fighters against IS. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting an on-off insurgency against Turkey for decades, invited retribution by breaking a two-year ceasefire and killing several policemen and soldiers, in reprisal for Turkey’s supposed collusion in the Suruc bombing, which hit a Kurdish cultural centre. But Mr Erdogan is being reckless, too. By deliberately stirring nationalist, anti-Kurdish sentiment, he is endangering the chance of a lasting settlement of the Kurdish question and weakening the fight against IS.

Why the caliphate endures

Under attack from America and an impressive list of allies, IS should by now be in full retreat. There are cracks in the caliphate, to be sure, but it has endured and has at times even taken new territory. Its resilience creates a myth of God-given invincibility that radicalises admirers around the world, draws recruits and spawns copycat groups.

The caliphate survives because its defeat is nobody’s priority. America’s aim is to limit its military commitment in the Middle East. For Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies, the big threat is Iran. Iran’s main mission is to prop up the Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad. Mr Assad’s first concern is holding other rebels at bay. The rebels’ obsession is to get rid of Mr Assad.

The hardest fighting against IS in the past year has been waged, in Iraq, by Shia and Kurdish Peshmerga militias; and, in Syria, by the Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), an offshoot of the PKK. The Syrian Kurds’ valour in defending the town of Kobane, in full view of television cameras just across the border in Turkey, earned much admiration and the direct support of America’s air force. Though Turkey sheltered Kobane’s fleeing civilians, it watched with indifference as Kurdish fighters desperately fought off IS; it only grudgingly allowed Iraqi Kurds to reinforce them.

With the most powerful army in the region, Turkey could tip the scales against IS. But it, too, has had other priorities (see article). At first Mr Erdogan made it his personal mission to get rid of Mr Assad; later, he worried about preventing Kurds from making more gains. When the Kurds evicted IS from the border town of Tel Abyad, Turkey warned them not to cross the Euphrates and link up with another Kurdish enclave to the west. The “Islamic State-free zone” in Syria that Turkey is urging looks more like a Kurd-free zone.

Many suspect Mr Erdogan of using the crisis for his own political advantage at home. When his Islamist-tinged Justice and Development (AK) party first came to power in 2002 Mr Erdogan was a reformer who sought a deal with the Kurds. But in June’s election he was denied a majority by the strong showing of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), a slick left-leaning group with strong Kurdish links. So Mr Erdogan is now playing the anti-Kurdish card. He has disowned a “road map” to peace negotiated by AK and the PKK. He says peace talks are “not possible”, and wants to strip away the immunity of HDP MPs. By bombing PKK bases in Iraq, Mr Erdogan may be trying to cut the support for HDP before calling new elections this autumn to gain the votes he needs to change the constitution.

If so, Mr Erdogan’s vainglory risks placing Turkey on the pyre of the Middle East. The AK party should ignore the president’s scheming, get on with forming a coalition with centrists and resume peace talks with the Kurds. The PKK must restore the ceasefire: more than three decades of fighting produced only misery. Now that the PKK has abandoned its old separatism, negotiations on devolution and language rights offer the best prospect of peace. If Turkish and Kurdish guns were pointed at IS, rather than at each other, it would be better for Turkey, the Middle East and the world.
Read more at http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21660123-bombing-kurds-well-islamic-state-turkey-adding-chaos-middle#7urXVfVERvmPUsKY.99

We should worry more about Erdogan’s dangerous actions than his crazy stories

July 22, 2015 By administrator

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has completely destroyed his credibility by making numerous bizarre claims in recent years.

For example, Erdogan told a group of Latin American Muslims visiting Istanbul last year that Muslim Pilgrims discovered America over 300 years before Christopher Columbus:

“It is alleged that the American continent was discovered by Columbus in 1492. In fact, Muslim sailors reached the American continent 314 years before Columbus in 1178. …In his memoirs, Christopher Columbus mentions the existence of a mosque atop a hill on the coast of Cuba. A mosque would look perfect on that hill today.”

When people around the world scoffed at the President’s unfounded assertion, Turkish reporter Oray Egin found out that Erdogan had completely misconstrued what Columbus had written in his memoirs comparing a mountaintop in Cuba to “a pretty mosque.” Turkey’s leader wrongly concluded that Columbus had seen a mosque built by Muslim sailors!

In one of many spoofs poking fun at Erdogan, someone sarcastically alleged that Astronaut Neil Armstrong wrote in his autobiography: “When we landed on the moon, we saw the ruins of a magnificent building. Buzz Aldrin and I were amazed as we approached the ruins. This was a small, elaborately-built Ottoman mosque. When we came back to earth, NASA and the American government ordered us not to talk about it.”

Such outlandish pronouncements attributed to the Turkish leader continue to pop up on the internet. Given Erdogan’s penchant for telling wacky stories, many people tend to believe anything they read about him.

Here is a recent example: “Ottomans were the first to reach the moon, says Turkish President,” wrote Barbara Johnson in the World News Daily Report. She quoted Erdogan saying: “It is alleged that the first man to walk on the moon was Neil Armstrong in 1969. In fact, Muslim space explorers reached our satellite 334 years before that, in 1635. Everyone knows the story of the famous aviator, Lagari Hasan Celebi, the ‘Ottoman Rocket Man,’ who made the first successful manned rocket flight in 1633. What you might not know, is that he attempted to reach the moon two years later and could very well have succeeded.”

According to Turkish mythology, legendary Ottoman aviator Lagari Hasan Celebi launched in 1633 a 7-winged rocket using 140 lbs. of gunpowder. Before his flight, he reportedly proclaimed: “O my Sultan! Be blessed, I am going to talk to Jesus!” After his rocket landed in the sea, Celebi allegedly swam ashore and announced: “O my Sultan! Jesus sends his regards to you!”

Reporter Johnson continued her whimsical story: “Pres. Erdogan’s surprising claim generated some whispers and laughter from the audience, a reaction that clearly angered the Turkish politician. He slammed the skeptics for mocking his claims, adding that he would soon have the proofs to back his claims. ‘Why do you not believe it? Because you’ve never believed that a Muslim can do such a thing…. NASA may have destroyed most of the physical evidence of the Ottoman’s success during the Apollo 11 mission, but we’ll try to find any evidence that might have escaped the cover up.”

Of course, what Johnson wrote was not true. Erdogan never uttered those words. However, it is interesting that many Turks believed the fake story, and posted the following comments in reaction to Johnson’s article:
— Ali Emre Demir: “Unfortunately, he is our President.”
— Berkay: “The scary thing is, if you are living in that nation and witness all the things that man does, and see how many supporters he has. This is an embarrassment.”
— Deniz: “Poor, secular Turkish people! This Tayyip is the embarrassment of Turkey.”
— Huseyin: “You cannot imagine what we have been suffering. He is a solid tyrant…. He is a complete dishonor to us.”

Indeed, Erdogan is a big embarrassment to millions of Turks who are ashamed of him as their President. Unfortunately, the Turkish President’s actions are more ruthless than his words: He jails reporters, orders the shooting of civil rights activists, sues those who disagree with him, stashes away millions of dollars obtained by corrupt means, dismisses judges and law enforcement officials who refuse to carry out his illegal orders, and supports the infiltration of ISIS terrorists into Syria and Iraq.

The international community should worry more about Erdogan’s terrifying actions than his delirious ramblings!