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Today marks 10 years since destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in Nakicevan

December 15, 2015 By administrator

Ten years ago today, the Azerbaijani authorities destroyed the Armenian monuments on the territory of Nakicevan and the Armenian cemetery of Jugha.
In the unprecedented act of vandalism, thousands of Armenian khachkars (cross-stones) were leveled with the help of heavy equipment.
The desecration of the monuments began back in 2003 and continued through 2006 onwards, reaching its end only in 2006.
Speaking to Tert.am, Samvel Karapetyan, a monument expert studying samples of Armenian architecture in and outside of Armenia, described Azerbaijan’s vandalism as an act encouraged first of all by Turkey, the country traditionally considered its more powerful brother.
“The ancient site of international significance does not exist for ten years, so we are not able to do anything to return [it]. But we can, of course, raise the world’s awareness of the crime committed. To rule out such brutalities, that country must be condemned and punished. Otherwise, such incidents will always repeat themselves. And they do; while we are talking now, the Azerbaijanis are destroying [more monuments]. That’s also because their ‘elder brother’, Turkey, wasn’t punished for that.”
International reaction to Azerbaijan’s vandalism from European Commission to UNESCO
Azerbaijan’s vandalism received an international reaction by such authoritative institutions as the European Commission, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and even the Holy See of Vatican and the Greek Orthodox church’s Synod, as well as the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). World-renowned scholars and politicians also voiced their criticism over the act of desecration.
On February 16, 2006 the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the destruction of a medieval cemetery in Jugha, as well as the historical monument on Azerbaijan’s territory and demanding that the European Parliament representatives be allowed to visit the country.

The question is raised at almost every session of the PACE. A European parliamentarian has once even proposed organizing a visit to Jugha, but Azerbaijan strongly rejected the idea.
In comments to Tert.am, Naira Zohrabyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to the PACE, recalled the screening of the movie “20th Century Vandals” at a joint session of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee. The Armenian parliamentarian, who then headed the Committee, remembered the strong reaction to the move.
“And it was unprecedented, as we managed to break the Azerbaijani lobbyist resistance to organizing the screening. Of course, numerous notes of protest by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry followed, but we believe we did manage to attract European organizations’ attention to the problem,” she noted.

Different international scholars, joined by US senators, so-signed a letter to the UNESCO and other international bodies, condemning Azerbaijan’s aggression. Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, the director of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, described the violence as an act tantamount to a crime. A British member of the European Parliament, Charles Tennock, compared it with Taliban’s move to destroy the monument of Buddah.
Adam Smith, an anthropology professor at the Chicago University, condemned the vandalism as “a shameful episode in humanity’s relation to its past, a deplorable act on the part of the government of Azerbaijan which requires both explanation and repair.”
In 2010, a cross-stone park with 20 replicas of the vandalized khachkars opened near the Church of Holy Savior of All in Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city.

Three Armenian Churches in Syria Destroyed by ISIS

December 15, 2015 By administrator

Armenian Genocide Memorial Church in Der Zor collapsed (Source: Public Radio of Armenia)

YEREVAN (Public Radio of Armenia)—The Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) has released the list of Christian churches and monasteries in Syria that have been destroyed by ISIS and other Muslim groups, including a total of three Armenian Churches.

Attacks on Christians in Syria began almost immediately after the Syrian civil war began. The attacks have targeted villages, churches monasteries and the clergy, and have been perpetrated by Al-Qaeda, the Al-Nusra Front, ISIS and other Muslim groups.

On February 23 ISIS attacked the 35 Assyrian villages on the Khabur River in Hasaka, Syria, capturing 253 Assyrians. In the subsequent months it destroyed 11 churches and villages, rendering some villages uninhabitable.

According to the agency, three Armenian Churches have also been destroyed by terrorists. The St. Rita Tilel Armenian Church in Aleppo was bombed by ISIS on April 28. The Armenian Genocide Memorial Church in Der Zor was destroyed by ISIS in September, 2014. The Armenian Catholic Church of the Martyrs was torched by ISIS and its cross atop its clock tower removed.

Syria-Update: Russian Air Force destroys 448 terrorist facilities in Syria over 3 days

November 9, 2015 By administrator

2731133 31.10.2015 Многофункциональный истребитель-бомбардировщик Воздушно-космических сил РФ Су-34 взлетает с авиабазы “Хмеймим” в Сирии. Дмитрий Виноградов/РИА Новости

The Russian Air Force in Syria has made 137 sorties over last three days, hitting 448 infrastructure facilities belonging to Islamic State and other terrorists groups in the country, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

“Over the last three days, Russian jets made 137 sorties in the Syrian Arab Republic and destroyed 448 facilities of terrorist infrastructure in the provinces of Aleppo, Damascus, Idlib, Latakia, Raqqa, Hama and Homs,” Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Defense Ministry, was cited as saying by Tass.

In Latakia province, the Russian warplanes struck a mortar position of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group.

“A direct hit led to the destruction of four mortars and an ammunition depot,” Konashenkov said.

More Jabhat al-Nusra facilities were targeted in Hama province, where a terrorist repair shop with armored vehicles inside was destroyed.

“An airstrike by a Su-24M bomber destroyed a hangar with four tanks and one APC inside,” the Defense Ministry spokesman said.

In Idlib, the Russian military jets leveled a major command center of Jabhat al-Nusra, which coordinated the terrorists’ actions in both Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

“In the suburbs of Zerba, in the Idlib Province, a large Jabhat al-Nusra command center was destroyed. The facility was established over the course of the last three weeks and it was well camouflaged,” Konashenkov said.

After the drones carried out reconnaissance, the Su-24 plane struck the facility with a guided KAb-500 bomb, he added.

Russian airstrikes have targeted an Islamic State munitions warehouse near the Syrian capital, Damascus, which hosted makeshift unguided missiles.

“In the area of Mont Mgar, Damascus Province, Islamic State’s warehouse of unguided missiles was destroyed. That warehouse had regularly supplied militants with unguided missiles that were used to systematically bombard the residential areas of Damascus,” Konashenkov said.

According to the spokesman, major arms caches belonging to Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists were also hit in the Raqqah and Homs provinces.

The intensity of Russian sorties was lower in the past few days, as some planes were assigned to reconnaissance tasks, Konashenkov said.

They gathered more information on terrorist targets, the locations which were provide to Russia by representatives of the Syrian opposition, the information center in Baghdad and the commanders of the Syrian army, he added.

“The intensity of our air group’s sorties has been below the normal level in Syria in the past few days. However, the number of targets per flight increased,” he said.

The massive Russian air campaign has led to “significant changes” in the tactics employed by the terrorists in all parts of Syria, the spokesman stressed.

“Armed groups aren’t acting as blatantly as they used to even a month ago,” Konashenkov said.

“They’re constantly changing routes for arms and ammunition supply, which are mainly carried out at night with all the necessary masking,” he added.

According to the spokesman, the terrorists are trying to implement so-called mobile defense tactics, regularly relocating their positions “in an attempt to hide from strikes, by both Syrian government troops and Russian air forces.”

Russia began carrying out daily airstrikes against Islamic State and other terror groups in Syria at the end of September after a request from the country’s president, Bashar Assad.

Report: Erdogan AK Party has destroyed 2 truckloads of documents since election

August 11, 2015 By administrator

AP Photo)

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has destroyed two truckloads of official documents since it lost its overall majority in Parliament for the first time in 13 years in the June 7 general election, according to a report in the Taraf daily.

The report, published on Monday, claims that sources within the civil service told Taraf that, following June 7, the AK Party ordered civil servants to destroy official documents such as those pertaining to discretionary fund expenditures and documents profiling dissenters, which could implicate AK Party officials if a coalition is unable to be formed or if the AK Party falls from grace in a snap election.

The report also claims that official papers pertaining to expenditures by the Prime Ministry via the discretionary fund have been destroyed and that most of the destruction has been done in the Prime Ministry and its lower departments. In addition, the report said that mail pertaining to exceptional appointments to certain government posts by direct ministerial authorization have been destroyed to prevent any possible liability.

The AK Party has been meeting with other parliamentary political parties in what many consider to be an insincere attempt to form a coalition to govern Turkey. So far, the secular main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has emerged as the only contender for a viable coalition government.

Taraf’s report states that the go-ahead for the eradication of documents, which the AK Party has labeled a “clean-up,” came on June 8 — one day after the AK Party lost its single-party majority but continued to command a presence within the ministries. Some of the destroyed documents are said to be concerned with the recruitment process to the civil service, in which acts of nepotism and favoritism by the AK Party were reported earlier this year. There have been claims that, when it was in power, the AK Party appointed its own partisans to public offices to ensure that the party’s brand of Islamist political ideology would become dominant within the government bureaucracy.

Even after the defeat on June 7, the AK Party has been accused of making last-minute appointments to important posts, such as appointing the deputy heads of provincial health directorates in 41 provinces to ensure an AK Party mindset in the bureaucracy. The Council of State even had to cancel a number of appointments to public institutions on the grounds that the postings were made at a time when a government has not yet been formed. It ruled recently that the appointment of the deputy directors of provincial health directorates did not serve the public good and was not considered within the scope of service requirements. The court’s decision constitutes a precedent that may have a similar effect on other appointments made recently in the absence of a new government.

Source: Zaman

Syria: Aleppo’s 15th century Armenian Church of Forty Martyrs Destroyed

April 29, 2015 By administrator

Aleppo’s Armenian Church of Forty Martyrs destroyed (photo: iNews)

ALEPPO, Syria (A.W.)—The Armenian Church of Forty Martyrs in Judayda, Aleppo, has been destroyed. The Church was bombed with explosives placed underneath the structure through underground tunnels, reported sources.

The Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Eastern U.S. confirmed the destruction of the Church to the Armenian Weekly.

The Forty Martyrs Church dates back to the 15th century. The first mention of the Church appeared in the second edition of the book, The Exploit of the Holy Bible, by Father Melikseth in 1476. The bell tower was built in 1912. The Church housed khatchkars, relics, and icons, including “The Last Judgment,” a painting that dates back to 1703.

The Church was at the center of Armenian community life in Aleppo, where for centuries religious and cultural initiatives took place.

The destruction of the Forty Martyrs Church comes about four months after terrorists bombed the Armenian Catholic Cathedral Our Lady of Pity (also known as St. Rita), located next to the Armenian Catholic Archeparchy of Aleppo, leaving the church partly destroyed. In September 2014, terrorists destroyed the Armenian Genocide Memorial Church in Der Zor, Syria—considered the Auschwitz of the Armenian Genocide.

Before the start of the Syrian crisis in the spring of 2011, between 60,000-70,000 Armenians called Syria home, constituting less than 0.5 percent of the country’s total population. More than half of them lived in Aleppo, with the other half scattered in such cities as Latakia, Homs, Qamishli, Hasakeh, Yaqubiye, Raqqa, Kessab, and the capital Damascus.

Erdogan has all but destroyed Turkish journalism Yavuz Baydar

March 20, 2015 By administrator

Journalists are being intimidated and imprisoned, while government-friendly moguls are given lucrative contracts. The free media is on the verge of extinction.

‘If alarm for the independence of the Turkish press was already high, those concerns were raised still further soon after the outbreak of the summer demonstrations in 2013 to protect Istanbul’s Gezi Park.’ Photograph: Osman Orsal/Reuters

Among journalists, the truth universally acknowledged is that bad news commands more column inches than good. In Turkey, the even more depressing truism is that much of the bad news has to do with the news industry itself.

Those of us trying to preserve our integrity as journalists fight a constant rearguard action – against proprietors who set little store by integrity, and against a government that tries to accrue power by restricting freedom of expression and ringfencing public debate.

Recent headlines have been devoted to the arrest of the journalist Mehmet Baransu. He was detained for a story he wrote in 2010, based on (literally) a suitcase of military documents, handed over to him by a whistleblowing officer, which implicated senior commanders in an attempted coup d’état, codenamed Sledgehammer.

The subsequent court proceedings – both in their scale and the liberal use of pre-trial detention – proved bitterly controversial. There is little doubt that the government interfered and was more interested in taming its own military than producing justice. The defence was able to cast doubt on the authenticity of some (but by no means all) of the evidence. So there is reason to believe that some of the convictions – suspended pending a retrial – were unsound.

Yet this is not why Baransu has been thrown in prison. He is accused not of misleading the courts but of handling state secrets, despite the fact that he had handed the leaked documents over to state prosecutors. Having got the military under its thumb, the government now requires its cooperation and has turned on the journalist who once made the government’s case.

Worse still, much of the government media is egging the prosecutors on. Imagine Glenn Greenwald being arrested and then the rest of the press urging the authorities to throw away the key. The current state of journalism is only a reflection of how polarised Turkish society has become under the divisive rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Self-censorship is the rule. Many Turkish newsrooms resemble an open prison rather than a creative hive and fear has gripped those of the so-called mainstream media institutions. It is not the fear of ending up in courtrooms or in jail: it is fear of being fired. There is utter professional vulnerability. According to Turkey’s journalist union, only 1.5% of our journalists belong to a union.

The columnist Kadri Gürsel wrote recently that the real aim is to finish off journalism as a whole, and this is a view shared by many. We are witnessing the dismantling of a profession whose independence should be guaranteed by the constitution. The very DNA of Turkey’s fourth estate is being severely tampered with. The aim of the government is to subordinate the media, as a whole if possible, to the political executive.

As I argue in The Newsroom as an Open Air Prison: Corruption and Self-Censorship in Turkish Journalism, a discussion paper that I prepared as Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School last autumn, this is the tragic story of the demise of a profession in one of the most important parts of the world.

This destructive pattern was accelerated by the two police operations in the last days of December 2013, massive investigations into the affairs of four ministers of the majority Justice and Development party (AKP) government. Those touched by the corruption scandals included a number of businessmen with close connections to the government, bureaucrats and bank managers, but also Bilal Erdoğan, son of the prime minister.

Of even greater concern is that the investigations appeared to suggest that senior government figures were engaged in sanctions-busting against Iran, and that these senior figures had links to financiers who laundered funds for al-Qaida.

The files compiled by law enforcement and prosecutors were a burning fuse: they claimed to expose a vast network of organised crime, with evidence of bribery, abuse of power and widespread corruption at the very highest echelons of power.Corruption of the nation’s media was at the heart of these allegations. A critical part of the investigation – backed by legal wiretappings – concerned consortiums to co-finance media entirely in favour of the AKP government. This joint effort, in which businessmen benefiting from government contracts paid into a common slush fund, gave rise to the term “pool media”.

A landmark in this targeting of media independence was reached with the blackout implemented by the media itself on the story of 34 Kurdish villagers killed by Turkish fighter jets in the Iraqi border village of Uludere/Roboski in late 2011. That silence became a dress rehearsal for the media surrendering its role as the watchdog of the public interest.

Yet if alarm for the independence of the Turkish press was already high, those concerns were raised still further soon after the outbreak of the summer demonstrations in 2013 to protect Istanbul’s Gezi Park. Protests spread to 78 of the 81 provinces in Turkey. The degree of self-censorship became so intense that the mainstream Turkish media itself became the subject of demonstration and open ridicule. Even so, Erdoğan declared that critical media – domestic and international – were part of a conspiracy to topple him and his government from power. Thereafter the demonisation of independent journalism gathered pace. Journalists who tried to defend their independence and dignity found themselves fired or dispatched to professional limbo.

The developing story of high-level corruption (reaching the very heights of the political establishment – a dream for any decent journalist anywhere in the world) was declared by the news management to be an area surrounded by “barbed wire.” Thus, 2014 began with a self-censorship more institutionalised and internalised than ever before. Blocked by political and institutional pressure, the core of Turkey’s dedicated and defiant journalists migrated their craft online. Social media and independent news sites began to fill a vacuum. The government’s reaction was to try to shut down YouTube and Twitter, but this proved technically difficult and legally unsuccessful.

Still Erdoğan is undeterred; the internet remains a target and vulnerable to government interference. Between 2013 and the end of 2014, the government imposed more than 20 news blackouts on important stories, on various grounds including national security. This was a normalisation of censorship.

Intimidation is normal, too. According to the latest report on 2014 by Independent Communication Network (BiA) there are currently 22 journalists in jail. More than 61 have been found guilty of defamation against Erdoğan in the past three years. On 14 December 2014 two of the remaining critical media outlets – Zaman and STV – were raided, their top managers arrested. Hidayet Karaca, the general manager of Samanyolu Media Group, has been detained for more than 80 days. His charges arise from a TV script.

This continuing process cannot be described as anything other than a purge. The Turkish media industry is systematically losing its qualified workforce, its remaining ethics are vanishing.

With the business groups on board, Erdoğan has simply raised the stakes to enforce dependence: in return for lucrative public contracts, all the media moguls in Turkey have to put their outlets in the service of power. It is a system based on corruption that also requires full complicity. If Erdoğan or his aides do not call the top managers and editors of the media to publish propaganda or censor undesirable content, the owners themselves do it.

The notion of journalism as a check on the irresponsible, corrupt or unfettered exercise of power is evaporating. Investigative reporting, more crucial than ever, is on the verge of extinction. Our democracy now depends on whether the Turkish media can escape the quagmire into which one man’s ambition has driven it.

Armenian church in Deir ez-Zor among 19 greatest monuments lost in conflict

March 8, 2015 By administrator

Armenian church in Deir ez-Zor among 19

The Armenian church in Deir ez-Zor that was destroyed by the Islamic state has been included in CNN-formed list of 19 greatest monuments lost in conflict.

The Armenian complex that includes a church and a museum was a memorial site to 1.5 million killed between 1915 and 1923. Deir ez-Zor became a destination for pilgrims from around the world, the article says.

The list also includes the ancient city of Palmyra, Nimrud in Iraq, Citadel of Aleppo, Great Mosque of Samarra, the Great Mosque of Aleppo and other sites.

The Armenian Church in Deir Zor was built in 1989-1990, and consecrated a year later. A genocide memorial and a museum housing remains of the victims of the genocide was subsequently constructed in the church compound.

Azeri commando group destroyed in Armenian border sabotage attempt

January 25, 2015 By administrator

Last week, preventing the Armenian Army actions of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh have killed at least 14 soldiers and 20 Azeris were injured according to the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh.

The latter states that two carriers Azeri troops, type “Sadko” were also destroyed.

During the past week Azerbaijan violated 1800 times the regime of cease-fire with more than 20 000 shots fired at the Armenian positions.

At the same time, Azeris began a twenty attempted incursion of Armenian defensive positions. But these attempts have échououé facing the Armenian fire. The Armenian Army has also undertaken on his side “operations of prevention” with raid on Azeri positions.

Krikor Amirzayan

Related links:

Artsrun Hovhannisyan’s Facebook Page

Frontline escalation: OSCE MG co-chair urges to stop violence

Syria Air Force destroys 2 of 3 jets seized by Islamic State – official

October 22, 2014 By administrator

The Syrian Air Force has destroyed two of three jets seized by the Islamic State (IS) group last week, the information minister in Damascus said. Omran al-Zoubi said on television that Syrian aircraft bombed the jets as they were landing at Jarrah airbase in the eastern countryside of Aleppo province. The militants were able to hide a third jet, which the Syrian Air Force is now searching for, AP quoted the minister as saying. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had reported that IS militants flew three MiG fighter jets over the air base with the help of former Iraqi air force pilots.

ISIS destroys 7th Century Church in Tikrit, Iraq

September 26, 2014 By administrator

Tikrit (IraqiNews.com) On Thursday, according to a security source in Salahuddin province, ISIS elements blew up the Green Church, which is considered to be one of the oldest Christian churches in the Middle East, in the center of Tikrit (170 km north of Baghdad). The Church was built in the 7th century and belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East.

The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com that “yesterday evening, the militants of ISIS bombed the Green Church in the area of the presidential palaces, with improvised explosive devices that were planted in its surroundings.”

The source, who asked not to be named, added that: “The bombing resulted in the destruction of the entire church.”

ISIS has destroyed churches, religious shrines and mosques in the provinces of Kirkuk and Nineveh, including the tombs of the prophets Jonah, George, Daniel as well as a number of ancient churches in the provinces of Salahuddin and Nineveh. In Mosul ISIS has destroyed or occupied all 45 Christian religious institutions