We are ready for defense and counterattack in the air and on land, says Armenia’s PM

June 30, 2018 By administrator

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan affirms that the Armenian Armed Forces are ready for complete defense in the air and on the land,

“Today’s festive flight was dedicated to the Day of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Armenia. We are ready for defense and counterattack in the air and on the land”, the PM said on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the establishment of the Armenian Air Force.

The experienced pilots of the Armed Forces conducted flights in Armenia’s skies on June 30, on the 26th anniversary of the establishment of the Air Force. The flights were accompanied with the waving of Armenian national flag.

Erdogan vows to recapture all lands once held by the Ottoman Empire VIDEO

February 21, 2018 By administrator

BY ROBERT SPENCER,

“We say at every opportunity we have that Syria, Iraq and other places in the geography [map] in our hearts are no different from our own homeland. We are struggling so that a foreign flag will not be waved anywhere where adhan [Islamic call to prayer in mosques] is recited.”

Apparently Erdogan means at the very least the recapture of all the lands once held by the Ottoman Empire. That’s not just Greece, as in the article title below. That’s also Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Syria, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and more. How seriously this can be taken is anybody’s guess, but it shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. Erdogan is already moving against the Kurds in Syria, explicitly calling the action a “jihad” and invoking the Ottoman era repeatedly.

And “We are struggling so that a foreign flag will not be waved anywhere where adhan [Islamic call to prayer in mosques] is recited” refers to far more than just the old Ottoman domains. That means everywhere there are Muslims in Europe and everywhere else. The caliphate is, in Sunni Islamic theology, the sole legitimate government for Muslims on earth, to which all Muslims owe allegiance. Erdogan is saying more clearly than he ever has before, as far as I know, that he is going to restore the caliphate. And he is virtually promising war with the non-Muslim (at least for now) states of Europe.

How far we have come. Just a few years ago, mainstream analysts would dismiss my talk of jihad and the caliphate by pointing to Turkey as an example of how Islam can coexist with democracy, and confidently predicting that soon the rest of the Islamic world would follow Turkey’s lead. Now they don’t talk about Turkey so much anymore.

“Turkey Threatens to Invade Greece,” by Uzay Bulut, https://gagrule.net/turkey-threatens-invade-greece/, February 19, 2018:

…Referring to the days of the Ottoman Empire, Erdoğan went on:

“Those who think that we have erased from our hearts the lands from which we withdrew in tears a hundred years ago are wrong.

“We say at every opportunity we have that Syria, Iraq and other places in the geography [map] in our hearts are no different from our own homeland. We are struggling so that a foreign flag will not be waved anywhere where adhan [Islamic call to prayer in mosques] is recited.

“The things we have done so far [pale in comparison to the] even greater attempts and attacks [we are planning for] the coming days, inshallah [Allah willing].”…

Liked it? Take a second to support Gagrule.net!

Return of land possible only when determining Karabakh status: Lavrov VIDEO

January 17, 2017 By administrator

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday, January 17 that the requirement to liberate “the occupied territories” of Nagorno Karabakh still remains on the agenda, but in no case by the use of force and exclusively upon determining the final status of Karabakh.

Commenting on the settlement of the conflict, the Russian foreign policy chief stressed that it is not an abstract notion and “is not merely a matter of Azerbaijan’s internal affairs.”

According to him, agreements on the implementation of a mechanism for investigating incidents and the increase in the number of observers in the conflict zone has not yet been implemented due to lack of consensus within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Azeri leader Ilham Aliyev met on June 20 in Saint Petersburg to address the conflict, with Russian President Vladimir Putin mediating the talks. The Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents confirmed their commitment to the implementation of agreements reached at a Vienna-hosted meeting on May 16. To that end, they agreed to increase the number of international observers in the Karabakh conflict zone. Also, they expressed satisfaction that the ceasefire was now holding. Prior to that, a meeting between both leaders was organized on May 16 in Vienna, with top diplomats from the MG co-chairing countries hosting the summit.

Recalling the bloody events in early April, the Russian diplomat noted that the escalation caused deepest concern. Lavrov at the same time said that “Russia played a decisive role in stopping the bloodshed at that moment.”

Azerbaijan on April 2 launched an overt military offensive against Karabakh, which resulted in hundreds of military and civilian deaths on both sides. Yerevan and Baku reached an agreement on the cessation of hostilities on April 5 in Moscow.

Tass.ru. Лавров сожалеет, что механизм расследования инцидентов в Карабахе пока не реализован

The New York Times Magazine has dedicated an entire issue to a single story: the Arab world’s undoing since the invasion of Iraq

August 11, 2016 By administrator

Fractured arab land More than a decade of war, terror and revolution has left a trail of ruin in the Arab world. This is the story of how a region came apart, seen through the eyes of six people whose lives were changed forever.

By Scott Anderson
Photographs by Paolo Pellegrin

This is a story unlike any we have previously published. It is much longer than the typical New York Times Magazine feature story; in print, it occupies an entire issue. The product of some 18 months of reporting, it tells the story of the catastrophe that has fractured the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq 13 years ago, leading to the rise of ISIS and the global refugee crisis. The geography of this catastrophe is broad and its causes are many, but its consequences — war and uncertainty throughout the world — are familiar to us all. Scott Anderson’s story gives the reader a visceral sense of how it all unfolded, through the eyes of six characters in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. Accompanying Anderson’s text are 10 portfolios by the photographer Paolo Pellegrin, drawn from his extensive travels across the region over the last 14 years, as well as a landmark virtual-reality experience that embeds the viewer with the Iraqi fighting forces during the battle to retake Falluja.

It is unprecedented for us to focus so much energy and attention on a single story, and to ask our readers to do the same. We would not do so were we not convinced that what follows is one of the most clear-eyed, powerful and human explanations of what has gone wrong in this region that you will ever read.

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/11/magazine/isis-middle-east-arab-spring-fractured-lands.html?emc=edit_ta_20160811&nlid=49769097&ref=headline&_r=0

Historical Facts: The Status of the Armenian land of Artsakh (ancient Ngorno-Karabakh)

April 5, 2016 By administrator

Karabakh historical map the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) was not a sovereign nation but a province of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), just like Chechnya is not sovereign today as a province of Russia, no matter what it is called.

Therefore when the Soviet Union fell in 1991, the new nation Azerbaijan which formed had no historical sovereign rights to Artsakh related to 1921 (when Stalin arbitrarily changed the internal boundaries of the USSR).

At the fall of the Soviet Union it was a matter for people of the new nations to determine their future. That is precisely what the people of the Ngorono-Karabakh Republic did – voting for independence as they were overwhelmingly ethnically Armenian (entirely understandable after the 1915-1923 Armenian genocide when Turks killed two-thirds of Armenians and stole ancient Armenian property in what is today Turkey ). Note: Azeris are Turkic people. In summary, the people of Ngorono-Karabakh were not voting to break away from Azerbaijan at all, as Azerbaijan was just a province until 1991, with no automatic legal sovereign rights related to 1921.

Source: http://originsdiscovery.com/

Iraqis Fear US Backs Turkish Land Grab in Mosul Region

December 10, 2015 By administrator

Iraqi parliamentarians worry the US government has given Turkey a free hand to grab territory in the country’s oil-rich Mosul region, experts told Sputnik.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Iraqi Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee recently called on Prime Minister Haider Abadi to reassess and, if necessary, cancel the country’s security treaty with the United States following Turkish occupation of Iraqi territory near Mosul.

“My impression is that the Iraqi government has observed that the Russians are more effective in combatting ISIS [Islamic State] than the United States,” University of Louvain Professor Jean Bricmont in Belgium, author of “Humanitarian Imperialism,” told Sputnik.

Iraqi politicians recognize that Turkey continues to be favored by Washington as a major military ally in the Middle East, and Ankara also remains a member in good standing of the US-led NATO alliance despite its aggression toward Iraq, Bricmont pointed out.

“The Iraqis can see that NATO is supporting Turkey, and the latter is invading part of Iraq. Certainly this cannot happen without US approval.”

Genuine concern about Washington’s long-term policies toward Iraq was growing among policymakers in Baghdad and the parliamentary committee’s statement was an expression of this, Bricmont explained.

“I don’t know what is going on in the minds of the members of the Iraqi government, but I don’t see why that would only be pure posturing.”

However, the United States would allow Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi to escape from his security obligations to Washington, University of Illinois Professor of International Law Francis Boyle told Sputnik.

“Abadi is a US puppet. Obama put him in power and keeps him in power. Nothing more than the Mayor of Baghdad,” Boyle said.

Bricmont added that Turkey’s and Saudi Arabia’s support for the Islamic State, also known as Daesh, and the continued US support for Ankara and Riyadh was driving all forces in the Middle East to look to Russia for protection.

“Turkey’s support for the Islamic State and the recent events in the region are a game changer, since all the forces that are opposed to ISIS — Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon — see that their only real ally is Russia.”

The Iraq-US Strategic Framework Agreement of 2008 contains a provision that allows either party to terminate it at one year’s notice.

Source: sputniknews.com

Conan O’Brien Lands Soap Opera Cameo, Visits Genocide Memorial In Armenia Visit

November 16, 2015 By administrator

Conan O’Brien’s trip to Armenia airing Tuesday on his TBS late-night show is a bit of a departure for the host in that he took his assistant Sona to visit her home country for the first time, and they visited the Armenian genocide memorial complex. Conan also once again frightened locals with his botched stab at their native tongue, plus he landed a cameo on an Armenian soap opera, attended the Festival of Bad Ideas, ate something billed as Armenian Viagra, and paid a call on some sheepherders who, he was disappointed to learn, were dressed like bouncers.

Conan announced last month he would become the first American late-night host to film in Armenia. He and TBS are hoping he can re-create some of the press coverage, and ratings, the show achieved last spring when O’Brien shocked the media and made headlines as the first American late-night host to shoot in Cuba in more than 50 years. He also generated larger than usual ratings with his Cuba trip — in April, TBS reported a total of 3.7 million viewers had checked out Conan In Cuba. During the Cuba special, Conan mocked CNN, learned the importance of the Cuban clave beat, wowed a band with his 8th-grade Spanish skills, and filed a report for CNN. Final stats for that trip came out one day after the White House announced President Obama would remove Cuba from the U.S. list of nations that sponsor terrorism as part of Obama’s move to restore diplomatic relations.

Syrian man claims Turkey is building new tomb on his property

February 24, 2015 By administrator

A Syrian man from Syria’s Kurdish town of Kobani has claimed that the land on which Turkey has chosen to move the recently exhumed remains of Süleyman Şah actually belongs to him and that no one informed him that the tomb would be built on his private property, a Turkish daily has reported.

According to a report published by the Vatan daily on Tuesday, the plot of land Turkey chose to rebuild the tomb, which is about 200 meters away from the Turkish-Syrian border in Şanlıurfa in an area being called Syrian Eşme, belongs to a 45-year-old Syrian man named Bozan Osman

Speaking to the daily, Osman, who took shelter in Şanlıurfa’s Birecik district near his relatives when clashes between Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants and Kurdish fighters broke out last autumn, said the land where the new tomb will reportedly be built belongs to him. He added that he didn’t sell the land or make any agreement with anyone regarding it.

“I saw Turkish soldiers going toward our village on [Saturday] night. I mean, the distance is [so close], around 200 meters. When we looked there [his land] in the morning, we saw the troops. I went to our mukhtar, Suphi Yavuz, and asked if the Turkish troops were on our land. The mukhtar told me: ‘Nothing bad will happen. The Turkish Republic is a big state and it won’t cause you grievance.’ The area is around 1,000 square meters. The whole of it belongs to me. No one came to me beforehand to inform me [that the tomb would be placed there],” Osman said.

The Syrian man also claimed that he went to speak with the Turkish soldiers and they also told him that “nothing bad will happen.”

He spoke about how the conditions of war in the area have affected him and the 12 members of his family, and he asked the Turkish government for help: “We are already in a difficult situation. While we were in Syria, we were earning our living by farming the land where the tomb will be built. We had planted wheat and barley. We are asking for help from the Turkish government. Land in Syria is too expensive. We don’t know what will happen.”

Diyarbakır: Zuart Sudjian has filed a lawsuit claiming the New Batman Airport had inherited

February 23, 2015 By administrator

By Uygar Gültekin

Diyarbakır Airport lawsuite

Following the land dispute involving the plot on which Diyarbakır Airport today stands, the land plot on which Batman Airport stands has also become the subject of a lawsuit. Zuart Sudjian has filed a case claiming that the State had built an airport on the plot she had inherited. Sudjian’s land in nearby Diyarbakır had also been appropriated by the State, and the Diyarbakır Airport was built on a part of her plot. report Agos

Zuart Sudjian is an Armenian whose family roots go back to Diyarbakır. Sudjian is a member of the Basmacıyan family from Diyarbakır, and she lives in Diyarbakır today. Sudjian found out that the land she had inherited from her family had been appropriated by the State during cadastral work, upon which she launched a legal process and applied to court for the return of her land. According to her application, like in Diyarbakır, an airport had been built on Sudjian’s land in Batman. The Batman 2^nd Court of First Instance accepted her application and opened a lawsuit.

Villagers claim rejected because it belonged to ‘disappeared’ Armenians

The story of the land is also interesting. According to the case file, after the family left Turkey, the land was used by villagers for many years. The cadastral survey in question was carried out in 1960. However, during the cadastral work, the villagers claimed that the use rights of the land belonged to them, and filed a lawsuit for the land to be given to them. In 1963, the Batman Cadastral Court rejected the application of the villagers. In its reasoned decision, the court stated that the land plot in question had been transferred to the Treasury from Armenians who had ‘disappeared’ 40 years ago and belonged to the Treasury since then, and that the villagers who had filed the lawsuit had no rights over the land, and rejected their case. This is the most important official document on the ownership of the land.

Court accepts case

Sudjian’s lawyers presented the 1963 decision of the Cadastral Court as evidence in the new case. The lawyers stated that the registration carried out by the Treasury was “irregular” and demanded the annulment of the registration, and the payment of compensation.

The lawyers also pointed out to the fact that in the other case involving the Diyarbakır Airport land, the prior decision of the court to reject the case on the basis of the expiry of the 10-year period involving the loss of rights had been annulled by the Court of Cassation and demanded the acceptance of the file. The court thus accepted the file and launched the case. The court will begin survey work following the examination of the cadastral records of the land plot and the land deeds presented by the lawyers.