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Merkel to skip official state banquet with Erdogan in Berlin

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not take part in the first-ever official state banquet to be hosted for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan here, German media reported on Monday.

As Xinhua agency reported, Merkel would not attend the event hosted by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at his official residence of Bellevue palace.

Although the Turkish leader has already visited Germany dozens of times in his official function as prime minister and president, his current visit marks the first time he has been offered full military honors, as well as a state banquet.

Merkel reportedly justified her absence by saying she already has two lengthy meetings scheduled with Erdogan during his two-day visit from Sept. 27 to 29. However, German media interpreted the decision as a further sign of lasting strains in the traditionally close relationship between Berlin and Ankara.

Merkel And Aliyev Hold ‘Open’ Talks On Human Rights In Azerbaijan

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Merkel meeting with rights activists and the prominent Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, a former RFE/RL contributor.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel held what she called “intensive” discussions with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in talks that addressed energy cooperation, human rights, and the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The meeting between Merkel and Aliyev in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, on August 25 included a discussion of the human rights situation in the South Caucasus nation that the German chancellor said was conducted in an “open atmosphere,” Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said on Twitter.

Critics accuse Aliyev’s government of carrying out a targeted crackdown on dissent in recent years, though the Azerbaijani leader has repeatedly rejected such criticism.

“We discussed the issue of the domestic situation in Azerbaijan and addressed human rights, also in a very open atmosphere,” Merkel said, according to a transcript of her press conference with Aliyev released by her office.

“We did not find common ground on all issues. But I argued that a strong civil society must be part of an open, secular society and made clear that we would like to see this strong civil society,” Merkel added.

Merkel’s stop in Baku on August 25 — the final leg of a three-day tour to South Caucasus that included visits to Georgia and Armenia — also included a meeting with rights activists and the prominent Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, a former RFE/RL contributor.

Ismayilova, who spent nearly 18 months in jail on charges widely viewed as retaliation for her investigative reporting before her release in May 2016, wrote on Facebook following the meeting that she spoke to Merkel “about corruption and how it undermines peace, democracy, and security in Azerbaijan.”

“I asked to be more outspoken on human rights and democracy issues because people here need to see examples of European politicians who aren’t silenced by corruption money,” she wrote.

Merkel “said our concerns are important and some have been addressed in the meeting she had with President Aliyev. I hope to hear more from her,” Ismayilova wrote.

Azerbaijan’s opposition, as well as Western officials and international human rights groups, have accused Aliyev’s government of persecuting opposition politicians, activists, independent media outlets, and journalists, often using what they allege are trumped-up criminal charges.

Aliyev, who has repeatedly shrugged off accusations of corruption and stifling dissent, defended his government’s record on human rights during an August 25 news conference alongside Merkel, saying Baku “is committed to democratic values.”

“All democratic institutions exist in Azerbaijan. All the liberties have been provided, in particular, freedom of speech, freedom of the press. There are hundreds of media outlets in Azerbaijan, including opposition media. Thereby, no one is being persecuted for the criticism [of the authorities] or for the [critical] views in Azerbaijan,” Aliyev said.

The two leaders also discussed energy cooperation between Europe and Azerbaijan, where Aliyev has ruled the nation of almost 10 million people with an iron fist since 2003.

Addressing a business roundtable in Baku on August 25, Merkel described Azerbaijan as “an important partner in the diversification of our energy supply within the European Union,” according to a transcript released by her office.

Nagorno-Karabakh

Merkel also said that Berlin could assist in mediating the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

“Germany wants to help find peaceful solutions,” Merkel told reporters, adding that the conflict over the mountainous territory is a significant burden on the region.

The region, populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, declared independence from Azerbaijan amid a 1988-94 war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Since 1994, Nagorno-Karabakh has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces which Baku says include troops supplied by Armenia. The region’s claim to independence has not been recognized by any country.

Internationally mediated negotiations involving the so-called Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) helped forge a cease-fire in the region, which is not always honored, but have failed to produce a lasting settlement of the conflict.

In Yerevan a day earlier, Merkel told reporters that “it is important that the conflict is resolved peacefully” and that Germany “stands ready” to contribute to a solution.

Merkel noted that Germany is a member of the OSCE’s Minsk Group and that “we stand ready to assume responsibility within the framework of the Karabakh settlement process.”

With reporting by DPA, Azernews, DW.com, and TASS

Despite an Encouraging Visit to Armenia, Chancellor Merkel Didn’t Say Genocide

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By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Media reports indicated that her visit to Armenia and meetings with its leadership were very constructive. Armenian-German political, cultural and trade relations are expected to expand. Merkel’s visit resulted in a much needed boost for Armenia’s new democratic government.
 
One of the sensitive issues that both Armenians and the international community were carefully following was Chancellor Merkel’s comments on the Armenian Genocide. The German Parliament (Bundestag) almost unanimously adopted a resolution in 2016 recognizing the Armenian Genocide and declared that “the German Empire bears partial complicity in the events.”
 
Immediately after the adoption of the Genocide resolution, Turkey withdrew its ambassador from Berlin and threatened to cut off ties with Germany. Relations between Germany and Turkey remain tense for a variety of reasons, but are expected to improve after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s forthcoming visit to Germany in late September.
 
While in Yerevan, Chancellor Merkel paid a visit to the Armenian Genocide Memorial. She laid a wreath in memory of the 1.5 million Armenian victims and planted a tree at an adjacent park. However, Merkel avoided the use of the term genocide in Yerevan, describing Turkey’s mass killings as “heinous crimes against Armenians” which “cannot and must not be forgotten.” She also stated that she had visited the Genocide Memorial “in the spirit of the Bundestag 2016 resolution.” She clarified that the language used was “a political, not a legal classification.”
 
Despite Merkel’s goodwill toward Armenia and her very positive statements, I hope that Armenia’s leaders reminded her that the proper term to describe the planned extermination of 1.5 million Armenians is “Genocide,” not simply “heinous crimes.”
 
Armenia’s leaders could have informed Chancellor Merkel of a recent report by Ben Knight of Germany’s Deutsche Welle (DW) about the weapons provided by the German Reich to the Ottoman Turkish forces to carry out the Armenian Genocide.
 
According to DW, “Mauser, Germany’s main manufacturer of small arms in both world wars, supplied the Ottoman Empire with millions of rifles and handguns, which were used in the genocide with the active support of German officers.” Furthermore, quoting from a report by “Global Net — Stop the Arms Trade,” DW stated that “the Turkish army was also equipped with hundreds of cannons produced by the Essen-based company Krupp, which were used in Turkey’s assault on Armenian resistance fighters holding out on the Musa Dagh Mountain in 1915.”
 
The author of the Global Net report, Wolfgang Landgraeber, wrote that “Mauser really had a rifle monopoly for the Ottoman Empire.”
 
DW revealed that “many of the firsthand German accounts in the report come from letters by Major Graf Eberhard Wolffskehl, who was stationed in the southeastern Turkish city of Urfa in October 1915. Urfa was home to a substantial population of Armenians, who barricaded themselves inside houses against the Turkish infantry. Wolffskehl was serving as chief of staff to Fakhri Pasha, deputy commander of the Ottoman 4th Army, which had been called in as reinforcement.”
 
In a letter to his wife, Major Wolffskehl shamelessly bragged about the killing of Armenians by German troops in Urfa: “They [the Armenians] had occupied the houses south of the church in numbers. When our artillery fire struck the houses and killed many people inside, the others tried to retreat into the church itself. But … they had to go around the church across the open church courtyard. Our infantry had already reached the houses to the left of the courtyard and shot down the people fleeing across the church courtyard in piles. All in all the infantry, which I used in the main attack … acquitted itself very well and advanced very dashingly.”
 
Landgraeber also reported that “while German companies provided the guns, and German soldiers the expert advice on how to use them, German officers also laid the ideological foundations” for the Armenian Genocide.
 
German Navy Attache Hans Humann, a member of the German-Turkish officer corps and close friend of the Ottoman Empire’s war minister, Enver Pasha, wrote: “The Armenians — because of their conspiracy with the Russians — will be more or less exterminated. That is hard, but useful.”
 
Furthermore, Landgraeber wrote in his report about “the Prussian major general Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, a key figure who became a vital military adviser to the Ottoman court in 1883 and saw himself as a lobbyist for the German arms industry and supported both Mauser and Krupp in their efforts to secure Turkish commissions. (He once boasted in his diary, ‘I can claim that without me the rearmament of the [Turkish] army with German models would not have happened.’)” Goltz “helped persuade the Sultan to try and end the Armenian question once and for all!”
 
The above quotations support the admission by Bundestag’s 2016 resolution that Germany was complicit in the Armenian Genocide and German President Joachim Gauck’s acknowledgment in 2015 about Germany’s “co-responsibility” for the Armenian Genocide. Being well aware of these facts, Chancellor Merkel should have called the Armenian Genocide by its proper name: Genocide!

Armenia PM gives official dinner in honor of visiting Angela Merkel

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YEREVAN. – On behalf of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, an official dinner was given—on Friday evening at the Prime Minister’s residence—in honor of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is on an official visit to Armenia.

According to the protocol, the heads of governments of both countries made mutual toasts, and they reflected on Armenian-German relations and the prospects for their development, informed the press office of the government of Armenia.

 

Angela Merkel in Azerbaijan calls for peace with Armenia

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Angela Merkel has offered Germany’s help in forging a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Baku is the chancellor’s last stop on a three-day visit to the South Caucasus.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that Berlin could help mediate between Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia to resolve a long-running territorial dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Germany wants to help find peaceful solutions,” the chancellor told journalists in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, adding that the conflict was a major burden on the region.

Merkel called for stronger economic cooperation with Azerbaijan as she sat down for talks with the South Caucasian country’s president, Ilham Aliyev. The pair discussed the domestic human rights situation, the possibility of expanding energy markets to avoid dependency on Russian gas, and efforts to end the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Azerbaijan is Merkel’s final stop on a three-day tour that has already taken her to Georgia and Armenia.

Frozen conflict

Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous border region, officially belongs to Azerbaijan but was seized by local Armenian forces during a war in the early 1990s following the break-up of the Soviet Union.

For more than 20 years, the two countries have been locked in a bitter dispute, with occasional flares in violence along the border. Azerbaijan has repeatedly threatened to take the region back by force, while Armenia says it will crush any military intervention.

Germany is a member of the Minsk group, which for years has been attempting to negotiate peace under the leadership of the US, Russia and France.

Merkel was expected to return to Berlin later Saturday.

nm/aw (Reuters, AFP, dpa)

Merkel Calls Ottoman-Era Killings Of Armenians ‘Heinous Crimes’

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YEREVAN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has described Ottoman-Era mass killings of Armenians as “heinous crimes against Armenians,” which “cannot and must not be forgotten.”

Merkel, who arrived in Armenia from neighboring Georgia on the second leg of her three-country visit to the South Caucasus, made the statement following a visit to a memorial dedicated to the victims of what Armenia describes as genocide.

After being greeted at Yerevan’s airport by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Merkel traveled to the Tsitsernakaberd hilltop complex to lay a wreath at the monument dedicated to the World War I-era dead.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed during World War I as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, a claim supported by many other countries.

Germany’s parliament recognized the massacres as genocide in a resolution overwhelmingly adopted in June 2016. It also acknowledged that Germany, then a military ally of Ottoman Turkey, did nothing to stop the killings.

Merkel avoided using the term “genocide” in her remarks, apparently sidestepping an escalation of tensions similar to that in June 2016, when Turkey reacted furiously to the resolution, recalling its ambassador in Berlin.

Successive Turkish governments have for decades vehemently denied a premeditated effort to exterminate the ethnic Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey says Armenians died in much smaller numbers and because of civil strife rather than a planned Ottoman government effort to annihilate the Christian ethnic minority.

Nagorno-Karabakh

Before the trip, Merkel’s office said, that during her stop in Armenia and subsequent visit to Azerbaijan on August 25, the chancellor would encourage efforts to reach “a peaceful and consensual solution” to the two countries’ long-running territorial conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

In Yerevan, Merkel told reporters that “it is important that the conflict is resolved peacefully” and that Germany “stands ready” to contribute to a solution.

Merkel noted that Germany is a member of the so-called Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) which was established to help find a solution to the conflict and that “we stand ready to assume responsibility within the framework of the Karabakh settlement process.”

Nagorno-Karabakh, populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, declared independence from Azerbaijan amid a 1988-94 war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Since 1994, it has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces that Baku says include troops supplied by Armenia, and international efforts to mediate the dispute have failed.

The stop in Yerevan marked Merkel’s first official meeting with Pashinian, the former anticorruption campaigner and opposition politician who was elected to the premiership in May after weeks of mass protests against corruption and cronyism.

She told reporters after the meeting that German leaders “followed the events in Armenia and the velvet revolution [that led to Pashinian’s election].”

She said she spoke with Pashinian about both bilateral relations and those within the framework of the European Union.

“Our relations can develop in the economic and cultural fields” and that cooperation can be increased in cultural, education, and IT matters, she said.

Merkel also met with President Armen Sarkisian, telling him Germany wants “to be involved in the reforms” announced by the new government.

“We have closely watched the changes and processes ongoing in your country. We stand ready to continue cooperating on this difficult but important way,” she was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Sarkisian said that “Germany is a very important partner for Armenia. I cannot fail to
mention also Germany’s political assistance, which we feel in the process of our cooperation with the EU, as relations with the EU are of very great significance to us.”

Armenia has pursued a delicate balancing act over the past decade, maintaining strong ties with Moscow while also developing relations with the European Union.

During her visit to pro-Western Georgia, Merkel said she backed Tbilisi’s aspirations to eventually join the EU and NATO, but said she was not able to provide “hasty promises” and that EU membership was not on the “current agenda.”

Merkel congratulated Pashinyan on taking office

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel has congratulated Nikol Paschinyan on being elected as Armenia’s Prime Minister.

“As a reliable partner, Germany will continue to assist Armenia in its drive for modernization and implementation of reforms and will make efforts for the deepening of bilateral friendly relations, as well as for the peaceful development of the region.,” Mrs. Merkel said.

“I very much welcome the fact that all those involved in the political processes of recent days and weeks have shown a great sense of responsibility for the benefit of the Armenian people. I wish you every success and all the best in the formation of the new government and throughout your tenure,” the Chancellor added.

‘Merkel’s credibility in question’ Germany sells arms to Turkey despite Afrin offensive, German broadcaster reports

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Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the Turkish offensive in the Syrian enclave “unacceptable.” But that has not stopped her government from selling arms to Turkey, German public media reported.

Germany continues to authorize the export of weapons to Turkey despite criticizing the country’s offensive in the Syrian enclave of Afrin, German public broadcaster ARD reported Thursday.

The German government has approved the export of military equipment worth €4.4 million ($5.4 million) since January 20, when Turkey launched its offensive against Kurdish militia in Afrin, ARD said, citing a response from the Foreign Ministry to a question by the Left party.

The value of the approvals in the month preceding the offensive was almost €10 million.

Merkel’s credibility in question’

Left party lawmaker Sevim Dagdelen, who has been a prominent critic of German arms exports to Turkey in the past, said the recent approvals had raised questions about Chancellor Angela Merkel’s credibility after she denounced the invasion as “unacceptable.”

“The criticism does not have any consequences,” he told ARD, adding that rather than taking action to stop the fighting, Merkel’s government authorized more weapons sales.

Last week, Merkel criticized Turkey’s attack on Kurdish forces in Afrin, which Ankara describes as an anti-terror offensive.

“Despite all justified security interests of Turkey, it’s unacceptable what’s happening in Afrin, where thousands and thousands of civilians are being pursued, are dying or have to flee,” Merkel told German lawmakers.

German arms in Afrin?

Social Democrat (SPD) Deputy Parliamentary Leader Rolf Mützenich said one could not rule out that Turkey would use some of the weapons bought from Germany in the ongoing offensive in Syria.

“NATO countries like Turkey have more open delivery options, but they can also be denied, and in this case, that would be appropriate,” he told the German broadcaster.

Turkey says it has taken “complete control” of Afrin after a ground and air offensive against the YPG that controlled the Syrian enclave. Ankara considers the YPG a terror group and an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels, which is waging an insurgency within its own borders.

Germany: Meet Jens Spahn, Merkel’s Possible Successor, “I am a burkaphobe.”

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Pictured: German Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) and Jens Spahn (left), a top contender for succeeding Merkel as leader of the CDU party. (Photo by Volker Hartmann/Getty Images)

Pictured: German Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) and Jens Spahn (left), a top contender for succeeding Merkel as leader of the CDU party. (Photo by Volker Hartmann/Getty Images)

by Soeren Kern  •  February 19, 2018 at 5:00 am

  • “What is clear at any rate: the financing [of imams] by foreign actors must stop.” — Jens Spahn, Deutsche Welle.
  • “The message that ‘If you reach a Greek island, you will be in Germany in six days,’ not only encourages refugees from Syria, but also many people in Bangladesh and India. No country in the world, and no European Union, can withstand that if we give up control of our external borders.” — Jens Spahn, Die Zeit.
  • “To anyone who makes their way to Germany, it must made be clear that their life here will be very different from that at home. They should think carefully about whether they really want to live in this western culture.” — Die Welt.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has sparked a mutiny from within her own party over a controversial coalition deal that allows her to remain in office for a fourth term. The deal, in which Merkel agreed to relinquish control over the most influential government ministries, has led a growing number of voices from within her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to say — publicly — that it is time to begin looking for her successor.

In a prime-time interview with ZDF television on February 11, Merkel, already in power for 12 years, rejected the criticism and insisted that she will serve another full four-year term. “I ran for a four-year term,” she said. “I promised those four years and I’m someone who keeps promises. I totally stand behind that decision.”

Merkel, who has been called the “Teflon Chancellor” because of her political staying power, may indeed manage to eke out another four years in office, albeit in a much-weakened position. Her decision in 2015 to allow into Germany more than a million migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East sparked a mass defection of angry CDU voters to the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), now the third-largest party in the German parliament. As a result, in Germany’s inconclusive election in September 2017, Merkel’s party achieved its worst electoral result in nearly 70 years.

The coalition deal, reached on February 7 between her center-right CDU, their Bavarian partners, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), must still be formally ratified by the SPD’s 460,000 rank and file members in a postal vote that begins on February 20. The outcome of that vote will be announced on March 4.

If the coalition agreement is not approved, Merkel may attempt to form a minority government, or German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier may call fresh elections. Either way, Merkel likely will face growing pressure to step aside.

A poll published by Focus on February 17 found that German voters are increasingly growing weary of Merkel. Nearly half (47.2%) of the respondents said that Merkel should step aside during the next legislative period; 38.5% said Merkel should to complete the full term.

The jockeying to succeed Merkel has intensified in recent days. At least half-a-dozen people are said to be in the running to assume leadership of the CDU if Merkel steps down.

A top contender, according to German political commentators, is Jens Spahn, a 37-year-old openly homosexual Roman Catholic with a reputation for straight talk. One of the rising stars of CDU’s younger generation, he is viewed by many as a possible future chancellor.

Spahn, who hails from Ahaus, a small town near the German-Dutch border, was elected to parliament at the age of 22, before he was graduated from university. As deputy finance minister since 2015, he has been a vocal critic of Germany’s healthcare and pension systems because of the massive financial burden they impose on future generations.

Spahn, a politically incorrect “liberal-conservative,” appears determined to reverse some of the CDU’s leftwards ideological drift, which occurred under Merkel’s leadership. He has accused the CDU of being “too accommodating of a liberal elite that has become convinced of its own moral superiority.” He has also said that he wants to win back disgruntled CDU voters who defected to the AfD.

Merkel may try to thwart Spahn’s ambitions in retaliation for his public criticism of her policies. Spahn does not, however, appear easily intimidated.

Merkel: Russia’s key role in relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan is apparent to EU

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It is apparent for the European Union (EU) that Russia plays a central part in relations with the EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries with which we will sign an agreement today.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday stated about the aforementioned at the official opening of the EaP summit in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium.

“I’m very happy that we [already] have signed the [EU] Association Agreement with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine,” added Merkel. “Now, we [the EU] will sign a partnership agreement similarly with Armenia and Azerbaijan. It will not be as intensive as the Association Agreement, but we will cooperate with them.

“It’s clear to us that the relations with Russia play a central role in the case of these countries. For that reason, I hope that we will realize, at today’s discourse, what the domestic political situation is in those countries.”