Greek defense minister says country vigilant against ‘enemy’ Turkey

April 5, 2018 By administrator

Greece’s defense minister described Turkey as an enemy

Greece’s defense minister described Turkey on Wednesday as an “enemy that continues to provoke us” and said he had ordered the deployment of more military personnel to islands in the eastern Aegean Sea. Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said 7,000 service members were being moved to the islands and a border area in northeast Greece amid a spike in tension between the two NATO allies, the Washington Post reports.

“If they have the guts, let them dare to challenge one inch of our territory,” Kammenos said while attending a reservist exercise on the island of Ikaria. “The Greeks, united, will crush them.”

There was no immediate comment from Turkish officials.

Greece and Turkey remain at odds over air and sea boundaries in the Aegean Sea, as well as oil and gas drilling off the coast of nearby Cyprus, which has been divided into ethically Greek and Turkish sides for decades.

The March 1 arrest of two Greek soldiers who strayed into Turkish territory while on a border patrol has further strained relations between the two countries. The soldiers remain detained in a Turkish prison.

GagruleLive: Russia Fueling Armenia’s Enemy Turkey, time to abandon Russia “Video”

July 31, 2017 By administrator

By Origins: Discovery

It’s true that Moscow has taken advantage of Armenians, as if they were pawns, for many centuries in the larger chess game between powers they play, even today:
1. They fooled Armenians during WWI by telling them that Mother Russia was here to save them from the Turks and then completely withdrew because of the 1917 Russian Revolution leaving Armenians helpless (they could have left a few troops if they were genuine);
2. Stalin gave gold and arms to the Turks in 1918 to allow Ataturk to take Masis and invade Eastern Armenia;
3. Stalin then invaded Armenia in 1918 as well, to subjucate Armenians for 7 decades and try and destroy the Armenian Church with Communism;
4. Stalin also amended the Armenian SSR boundary in 1922 to give Artsakh to the Azeris (and Nakhchivan) – but this was just a provincial boundary and when the Soviet Union fell it had no legal meaning as the collapse of Soviet law gave the right to self-determination and independence to Armenia, Azerbaijan… and Artsakh (Artsakhpress.am);
5. Russia then stopped the Armenia in the 90s when the Armenians had beaten the Azeris and could have gone all the way to Baku to force a peace treaty which would have saved countless lives lost in the past 25 years; and
6. Russia today arms the Azeris and the Turks, while ‘defending’ Armenia and influencing the Armenian people with pervasive propoganda against the West – as if Russia is Armenia’s only option as a ‘friend’.

US sanctions against Russia ‘in Armenia’s interests’ – analyst Levon Shirinyan

The United States’ move to enforce fresh sanctions against Russia gives absolutely no ground for concern, especially to Armenia, according a Yerevan-based political analyst.
Speaking to Tert.am, Levon Shirinyan described the Trump administration’s recent decision as an attempt to ‘constrain Russia’s appetite’.
“Russia’s expansionist appetite is really big, as they want to seize Donbass, Ukraine and Armenia,” he said, blaming the country also for provoking repeated hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“With those sanctions now, the United States are making attempts to moderate that appetite,” Shirinyan added.

The expert said he also sees Russian attempts to establish dominance over Armenia through soft power. “While they now propose giving Russian a state language status, sometime in the future, they may urge us to change also our religion. That’s a Russian style of acting, a way of seizing [Armenia],” he noted.

Putin says US not Russia’s enemy

June 15, 2017 By administrator

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the US was not an enemy of his country, saying his country had “many friends” in America, Nbcnews.com reports.

“We have been through two wars together,” he said during his annual nationwide televised call-in show. “The Russian Empire was key in securing U.S. independence.”

Putin added: “I know the mood of our people, we don’t believe America is our enemy … There is hysteria in the media and it affects the mood, but many people in Russia admire the achievements if the American people, and I hope relations will normalize.”

He also addressed his personal life, saying that his two daughters and two grandchildren reside in Russia.

“Despite all rumors, my daughters live here, in Moscow,” he said.

“My grandchildren are in preschool,” he adding, stating that he wanted to keep their identities and ages a secret. “I want them to be normal people, and for that they need to mix with ordinary people. But if I mention their names, they will not be left in peace. This will damage them. Please understand me.”

Azerbaijan’s leadership, not people, is real enemy – Modest Kolerov

December 23, 2015 By administrator

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) could issue a statement on escalation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and on the Line of Contact only if Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan had requested, political analyst Modest Kolerov told Tert.am, as he commented on the Armenian leader’s latest criticism of the CSTO over its not responding to Azerbaijan’s provocations against the organization’s allies.

Asked about the reasons why he CSTO is not responding to Azerbaijan’s attacks on its allies’ borders, Mr Kolerov said:

“The CSTO can issue a statement only if Serzh Sargsyan requests. According to the information at my disposal, he did not ask for such a statement to be made.”

Elaborating on the subject, he said:

”You are saying that Azerbaijan has intensified it actions against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, but I think the situation on the border is in conformity with the bilateral relations. I am sure that the Armenian and Russian presidents are following the course of creating an alliance, which will settle security issues and resolve the problem of military and technical support. Finally, it is cart blanch to Armenia in forming a second national center in Russia.”

Asked whether Azerbaijan using tanks and mortars runs counter to the international cease fire principles, Mr Kolerov said:

“Yes, it does. So the tanks that fired at Nagorno-Karabakh must be destroyed.”

According to him, “absurd” are Armenian experts’ opinions that in not supporting Azerbaijan’s provocations Russia is acting on behalf of the CSTO. In this case, Russian-Armenian relations could be called into question.

“It is not the CSTO format, but Russian-Armenian partnership that is in question. And there can be no problems,” Mr Kolerov said.

Speaking of the latest Armenian-Azerbaijani presidential meeting, he said that such meetings cannot produce any results in terms of conflict settlement as they are not supposed to.

“The meetings are not a way to progress. However hard the conflicting parties reproach each other, you have to be reconciled with each other. It is not the Azerbaijani people that is the enemy. It is their leaders that are the enemy,” the expert said.

Azerbaijan has the necessary financial and human resources to launch large-scale hostilities, but “they are afraid that we can kill them.”

Erdogan’s Turkey is Turning Into NATO’s ‘de Facto Enemy’

December 4, 2015 By administrator

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might have called his NATO allies right after Ankara shot a Russian Su-24 bomber out of the Syrian skies but Turkey is a NATO ally “in name only,” Victor Davis Hanson wrote for Townhall. It is a “de facto enemy” of the North Atlantic Alliance.

“The problem with Turkey and the West … is that their relationship is decades out of date. What was once an alliance is now nothing special at all,” the American military historian noted.

Take a look at Turkey’s relations with extremist groups in Syria or its downing of a Russian aircraft, which was on a counterterrorism mission in Latakia.

Erdogan never misses an opportunity to underscore Turkey’s critical role in tackling Daesh, also known as ISIL/The Islamic State, but privately militants “have received a wink and nod from Turkish border authorities, given their shared hatred of Russia, Syria and Iran,” the columnist asserted.

“The Islamic State may be a primordial death cult, but Erdogan apparently believes that it is at least a Sunni, not a Shiite, killing machine, and is occasionally useful in fighting common enemies, especially the Kurds,” Hanson added.

The Su-24 incident shows just how two-faced Ankara really is. The Turkish Air Force shot down the aircraft citing alleged airspace violations, when the plane in fact never crossed into Turkey.

“Turkey now demands justice from Russia for violating Turkish airspace. But no country in the world violates foreign airspace as often as Turkey. A Greek defense analyst counted 2,244 times that Turkey violated Greek airspace in 2014 – an average of more than six violations per day,” the analyst explained.

Not exactly a model NATO member regardless of what Barack Obama might think. The US president used to call his relationship with Erdogan a “special friendship.” He was also a champion of Turkey joining the EU.

“All that can be said for Obama’s current ‘model relationship’ is that Turkey is strategically located, with a large and powerful military, and hosts NATO bases. Those facts make it wise to keep Turkey neutral rather than hostile,” Hanson added.

“The biggest enemy of Iraq now is Turkey” Qais al-Khazali, head of Asaib Iraqi militia leader said

September 18, 2015 By administrator

Qais al-Khazali (C), the leader of the Shiite group Asaib Ahl al-Haq, (Photo: AP)

The head of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of Iraq‘s fiercest Shi’ite militias, on Thursday denounced the abduction of 18 Turkish workers in Baghdad earlier this month but condemned Turkey as Iraq’s biggest enemy.

The Turkish captives appeared in a video days after their abduction, apparently held by an armed group that used a familiar Shi’ite Muslim slogan and threatened to attack Turkish interests in Iraq if its demands were not met.

It is not clear if the gunmen belong to an established group. Iraqi security forces investigating the Turks’ abduction raided the Baghdad headquarters of Kataib Hezbollah, another Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia, but without result.

Baghdad has struggled to rein in Shi’ite militias, seen as critical weapons against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or control criminal gangs carrying out contract killings, kidnappings and extortions.

Qais al-Khazali, head of Asaib, said the group was not behind the kidnapping, but he echoed demands made of Ankara in the ransom video to stop the passage of militants from Turkey to Iraq, cut the flow of oil from Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, and order the lifting of a siege on two Shi’ite villages in northwest Syria.

“The Turks – the Turkish intelligence – are the ones who ease the entrance of large numbers of Daesh (ISIL), including suicide bombers, from Turkey to Syria and from Syria to Iraq, killing Iraqis by hundreds and thousands,” he said in an interview with Iraqi state television.

Thousands of foreign fighters have crossed through Turkey to join ISIL over the past few years, fueling accusations from the government’s opponents that it was turning a blind eye, something Ankara has repeatedly denied.

“The biggest enemy of Iraq now is Turkey, and this enemy is the first and one of the biggest benefactors of Iraq’s riches,” Khazali said, apparently referencing oil smuggled by ISIL or sold by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) via a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

He said Turkey played a more negative role in the region than Saudi Arabia or Qatar, Sunni Gulf Arab states which Iraqi Shi’ite politicians have accused of funding ISIL insurgents, allegations denied by both countries.

Two of the 18 Turkish hostages were released in good health on Tuesday in the southern city of Basra, but the others remain missing.

Russia views Azerbaijan as enemy – Vagharshak Harutyunyan

September 8, 2015 By administrator

Violating the ceasefire is not in the Armenian side’s interests, Armenia’s former minister of defense Vagharshak Harutyunyan told Tert.am.

Mr Harutyunyan, what is the reason for resumed border tensions?

It is Azerbaijan’s strategy. Azerbaijan is well aware of its inability to settle the conflict by means of full-scale war. On the other hand, they do not want a negotiated settlement. The result is a frozen process.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are not making any proposals because Azerbaijan has rejected all the proposals.

Azerbaijan has no alternative and is well aware all the ways are closed. So they are trying to influence Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh by escalating tension and an atmosphere of fear, thereby forcing emigration and forcing the Armenian side into concession at the negotiations, blackmailing the co-chairs and the oil-exporting states, which are interested in regional stability. The steps are aimed at information war to force the Armenian side into concessions.

The border tensions followed Russian FM Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Baku. Could Lavrov have given any promises to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for Russia to retain influence over Azerbaijan?

Lavrov’s visit was preceded by the ones of Russia President Vladimir Putin and other presidents. Border tensions have continued for 21 years, and it is absurd to link them with the visits. It is signed documents that show the level of interstate relations. If we compare Armenian-Russian relations with Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, we can see we have the deepest ties with Russia – in the military, economic and security fields. On the other hand, Azerbaijan has only economic ties involving the Caspian. Azerbaijani-Russian relations are nothing but partnership. We should not forget that Russia and Armenia signed a protocol in 2010, which envisages Russia’s interference in case Azerbaijan attacks Armenia. It means Russia views Azerbaijan as an enemy.

Mr Harutyunyan, does the use of new quality of weapons by Azerbaijan signal a threat of renewed war?

The fact that Azerbaijan uses high-caliber weapons is really a reason for concern, but that does not imply an increasing likelihood of war. The likelihood will increase in a political-military situation in which Azerbaijan will be sure of success. But we do not have that situation now.

What about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict? Is its settlement no longer in a deadlock?

The situation we are facing today signals no solution to the conflict. If we consider the problem in global terms, we will see that no territorial dispute or conflict has ever been settled at once. Israel hasn’t been able to settle the problem for about 60 years and it’s almost 80 years Greece hasn’t done so. So, problems of the kind are not easy to solve.

But the OSCE Minsk Group repeatedly urges the partoes to restrain the tension and avoid violating the ceasefire. And no specifically addressed statements are ever made.

It’s not in the interests of the Armenian side to violate the ceasefire regime. We do not have such purposes, either political or military. We do not seek to move ahead to seize Baku, whereas Azerbaijan has set such a task and announced officially that it is going to seize Karabakh.So from the political-military point of view, Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic are not interested in violating the ceasefire?

Then why does the OSCE Minsk Group fail to make its calls specific?

These should be treated as diplomatic statements. Personally I consider them wrong, because if the objective is to avert border tension, the appeals and calls have to be specific and addressed to the side which is really to blame. But the co-chairs simply put an equal sign as a diplomatic gesture.

Is there any need for Armenia to apply to the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) or the UN Security Council?

The organizations which are concerned with this are the United Nations and its Security Council, the OSCE, its Minsk Group and personal representative, the Commonwealth of Independent States and NATO, the PACE and the EU Eastern Partnership countries. There are also other interested states and institutions. So the Republic of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have to let those institutions know of border transgressions whenever they happen and call for active mechanisms towards resolving and preventing such violations.