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YEREVAN. – A motor rally led by opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan is heading to the Armenian city of Gyumri, where the rally will kick off at 6:00 PM.
Earlier, Pashinyan noted that all the actions in Yerevan will be suspended for a while, thus the activists can have a rest, but if they want, they can join him and go to Gyumri.
A rally will also be held in Vanadzor at 3pm on April 28 and in Yerevan on April 29, 30 and May 1.
Armenian opposition continues civil disobedience campaign
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Protesst actions continue in different districts of Yerevan.
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Garegin Nzhdeh Square and the surrounding streets are blocked in Yerevan as the procession continues, attracting more people.
Cars and public transportation means are stuck in a traffic jam.
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Residents of Vanadzor have are also holding a demonstration in the city’s Hayq square.
Most of the protesters are students.
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The crowd led by Nikol Pashinyan is now walking down Khorenatsi street. The opposition leader said he knows that residents of several regions have also joined the protest action against a Republican prime minister. He said that several secondary schools in Noyemberyan (Tavush region) have gone on strike, with the interstate highway of Aparan (Aragatsotn region) being blocked and the population of Kajaran (Syunik region) holding a mass protest.
Opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesday morning rallied a crowd of supporters in Yerevan’s Republic Square for protest action against the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA).
Many students of Yerevan State Medical University and other educational institutions have joined the protesters who are now heading down Avovyan Street in a procession. The leader of the Civil Contract Party earlier livestreamed a video message on Facebook, calling for conducting massive strikes in Yerevan and cordoning off central streets and avenues.The politician expressed his discontent with acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan’s Friday statement ruling out future negotiations with him or any plan for snap parliamentary elections.
https://youtu.be/R0mkpsRUf2k
YEREVAN. – The topic of discussion with the authorities can only be the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan.
“My Step” initiative leader, opposition Civil Contract Party Political Council member, and National Assembly (NA) of Armenia “Way Out” (Yelk) Faction head Nikol Pashinyan on Saturday told aforesaid to reporters, during the “My Step” march in capital city Yerevan.
He noted this commenting on Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan’s proposal to him to immediately sit at the negotiating table.
“After that [Sargsyan’s stepping down], we will discuss the terms,” Pashinyan said. “Moreover, these terms shall be acceptable not to me, but to the people.”
Also, he stated that Sargsyan has no control over the current situation and his obstinacy threatens Armenia.
“If they [the police] take, apprehend, arrest or detain me, I call on Armenia’s citizens to go out and close off all the roads, block all the police departments, all public administration buildings,” Pashinyan stated adding that his arrest cannot stop the process.
As reported earlier, Serzh Sargsyan issued a statement and called on Nikol Pashinyan to immediately “sit at the table of political dialogue and negotiations,” while the police threatened to stop the rally.
Nikol Pashinyan and his supporters are staging protests in capital city Yerevan ever since April 13, and by marching, holding rallies, as well as blocking streets and squares. They protest against ex-President Serzh Sargsyan being elected Prime Minister of Armenia.
As a result of the clashes during these demonstrations, 46 people—including Pashinyan—were injured, and police detained several dozen people, including minors.
In addition, a criminal case has been filed into the protesters’ bursting into the Public Radio of Armenia building and regarding an incident that occurred at an intersection in downtown Yerevan.
Ex-President Serzh Sargsyan was elected Prime Minister at Tuesday’s NA special session, and by a vote of 77 for and 18 against.
Israeli opposition leader one again urged the government to recognize the Armenian Genocide and support the Kurds.
Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid kept some of his harshest criticism for Netanyahu’s handling of Turkey, saying that the agreement with that country reached in 2016 to put an end to the Mavi Marmara affair was a mistake, The Jerusalem Post reported.
At a press briefing with diplomatic correspondents, Lapid said that Israel should stop “humiliating itself” before the Turks and has to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Lapid added that “putting gas in Erdogan’s hands” is a crazy move.
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu gives his weekly speech in the town of Camlidere in the Ankara Province, on June 20, 2017. (Photo by AFP)
Turkey’s main opposition leader has challenged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to resign if it is proven that the government influenced the judiciary in the post-coup crackdown in the country.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu made the remarks in a Tuesday speech for hundreds in the town of Camlidere on the outskirts of Ankara on the sixth day of his “walk for justice” protest march from Ankara to Istanbul.
“If I prove you and your government gave instructions to the courts, will you resign from your role as an honest and honorable person?” he said.
“I give my word as well. I will leave politics if I do not prove (these claims). Because I am an honest and honorable person,” he added.
The 68-year-old Kilicdaroglu leads the march in protest at a heavy jail sentence handed down to former journalist turned CHP lawmaker Enis Berberoglu.
A court sentenced Berberoglu to 25 years in jail on Wednesday for leaking classified information to a newspaper.
The 450-kilometer (280 miles) trek is expected to take almost a month and will culminate at Maltepe prison in Istanbul where Berberoglu is being held. The march represents Kilicdaroglu’s biggest challenge to Erdogan since he took over the CHP in 2010.
Kilicdaroglu said he was “walking for everyone who seeks justice,” vowing, “We are a party who will defend democracy until the end.”
The opposition accuses Erdogan of shifting towards authoritarianism, especially since last year’s failed coup which was followed by a massive crackdown and the April referendum which expands the president’s power.
Kilicdaroglu calls Erdogan the “July 20 coup plotter”, referring to the date when the president declared a state of emergency.
Erdogan said Saturday that actions like the march by Kilicdaroglu would bring no good for Turkey, saying the opposition leader should not “be surprised” if legal proceedings were opened.
Kilicdaroglu said he was undeterred by Erdogan’s threats that the action might lead to legal proceedings against him.
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Turkey has seen a surge in political fighting since a failed coup attempt on July 15 last year. The opposition has constantly criticized a crackdown launched since the coup which has seen more than 40,000 people arrested and over 100,000 discharged from their jobs. Kilicdaroglu even once accused Erdogan of being the “July 20 coup plotter”, saying he had used the deadly coup by military renegades to consolidate his rule in Turkey.
Tensions rose again on April 16 when voters endorsed changes to Turkey’s constitution and gave Erdogan more powers as president. The CHP has censured Erdogan’s narrow victory in the referendum while warning that Erdogan would slide Turkey into a one-man rule system.
yThousands of people began in Ankara, on appeal from the main opposition group, a long march to Istanbul, a distance of 400 km, in protest at the incarceration of a member of the party .
Enis Berberoglu, of the People’s Republican Party (CHP), was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison for providing the opposition daily Cumhuriyet with confidential information.
This is the first time that a member of the CHP, a party founded by modern Turkey’s father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, has been imprisoned since the lifting of parliamentary immunity last year.
The CHP immediately objected to this decision, several members calling it “political”. The party leader, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, decided in protest to travel on foot the 400 km stretch that separates Ankara from Istanbul where the deputy is imprisoned. “If there is a price to pay, I will pay it first,” Kiliçdaroglu said. “I’m going to Istanbul. And we will continue our march until there is justice in Turkey. “He also called on all those who want to defend justice to support his approach.
Several thousand people walked with him from downtown Ankara, waving signs bearing the word “Justice”, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. “Do not stay silent. If you are silent, your turn will come, “they chanted, as well as” side by side against fascism. “
A gathering was also organized in Istanbul, where several hundred people gathered, chanting “we will win through the resistance,” said another journalist of the AFP.
Enis Berberoglu is accused of providing the opposition daily Cumhuriyet with a video claiming the interception of trucks belonging to the Turkish secret service (MIT) and carrying arms in Syria in January 2014 at the Syrian border.
The case had caused scandal and provoked the fury of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who promised Cumhuriyet editor of the time, Can Dündar, that he would “pay the price”.
Berberoglu, who was appearing on Wednesday, was imprisoned immediately after the verdict was announced by the court. The lawyer of the deputy has appealed this decision as early as Thursday morning, reported the private agency Dogan.
turkeyThe Aydinlik newspaper has reported the arrest of its editor-in-chief, Ilker Yucel. The apparent cause was an unpaid fine for an article about President Erdogan’s son-in-law published in 2014.
The Aydinlik newspaper, in its digital edition on Saturday, said its editor-in-chief, Ilker Yucel, was arrested in the extreme east of Turkey and taken to prison in Igdir near the border with Armenia, where he is to stay until a fine is paid, his lawyer said.
“I have been detained in Igdir for not publishing a correction from [Energy Minister and son in law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan] Berat Albayrak that included an insult to Aydinlik,” said Yucel in a Twitter message.
Bulent Tezcan, a member of parliament and spokesman for the main opposition People’s Republican Party (CHP), called for Yucel’s immediate release on Saturday.
“Turkey is experiencing one of the darkest, most oppressive periods in its press history,” Aydinlik quoted Tezcan as saying.
Since a failed coup attempt in July, Erdogan has cracked down on many opposition figures, including politicians, academics, journalists, police and judges. Two German journalists are also currently being held in prison in Turkey.
Read more: Berlin artists stand in solidarity with imprisoned German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel
The Turkish Journalists Union (TGS) also called for his immediate release.
The case dates back to 2014 when Aydinlik published an article about Berat Albayrak, the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has been energy minister since November 2015. The report claimed Albayrak had links to crime. Accusations from the Wikileaks websites allege the 39-year-old Albyarak played a role in the sale of oil by the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) group. He has denied all such accusations.
A court in Turkey ordered the newspaper to either publish a disclaimer about its report or pay a $28,000 (24,800 euro) fine. The paper refused, with Yucel saying the disclaimer “insulted” the paper.
Yucel is also a prominent member of the small, left-wing Patriotic Party (Vatan) which renewed itself in 2015, bringing together socialists, revolutionaries and nationalists.
The European Federation of Journalists said 159 media workers have been jailed in Turkey – including reporters from France and Germany.
Turkey is positioned 155th on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index of 180 countries.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – With the latest revelations regarding Lieutenant General Michael Flynn’s opposition in concert with Turkey against a U.S. military operation that had been planned for months, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) renewed its call for a thorough investigation of Turkey’s surreptitious influence over U.S. officials to the detriment of U.S. national security.
Today, the Assembly sent letters to the Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC), Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA), House Intelligence Chairman David Nunes (R-CA), and Ranking Member Adam Schiff (D-CA) highlighting key concerns on this matter.
“Time and time again, we have seen Turkey’s corrosive attempts to influence U.S. policy. Given the aforementioned issues, we respectfully renew our request for a thorough investigation of Turkish activities that compromise America’s national security and democratic institutions,” Assembly Co-Chairs Anthony Barsamian and Van Krikorian said.
Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. stated: “It is even more troublesome that [Flynn] failed to disclose his actions and that he may have compromised our efforts to defeat ISIS in order to please his former client. With Mr. Flynn’s willingness to conceal relationships with foreign powers, we must investigate if there are other interactions that have yet to be revealed.”
According to a report in McClatchy Washington Bureau, “Flynn’s rejection of a military operation that had been months in the making raises questions about what other key decisions he might have influenced…”
This new revelation follows Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s November 8th op-ed in The Hill wherein Flynn argued that “we need to see the world from Turkey’s perspective.” Flynn was paid over $500,000 for his work on behalf of Turkey according to his recent FARA filing, which he failed to disclose until he was caught.
News about Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn comes just after a brutal attack by Turkish bodyguards against those peacefully protesting in front of the Turkish Ambassador’s residence.
Turkey’s main opposition party has vowed to take widespread irregularities during the April 16 referendum to the Constitutional Court and European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), repeating its accusations against the election watchdog and calling on the Supreme Election Board (YSK) to annul the referendum results.
“The only way to end ongoing discussions over the referendum’s legitimacy is to annul it. What is necessary is the annulment of this referendum,” a deputy leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Bülent Tezcan, told reporters at a press conference on April 17.
Tezcan said they were preparing their files to apply to the YSK, which agreed to accept unsealed ballot papers as valid halfway through voting day, for the annulment of the referendum, vowing that they would also apply to the Constitutional Court and the ECHR if necessary.
The deputy leader also presented video footage to the reporters, which he said was a proof of the widespread fraud. The footage showed election officials stamping ballots after the ballot boxes were opened and counting started.
“This referendum will take its place in the dark pages of history with its open voting but secret counting. The YSK did not and cannot stage a safe election,” Tezcan said. “This referendum will always be remembered as illegitimate.”
The CHP accused the YSK of deeming unsealed ballot papers as valid even though the Election Law forbids such a practice.
With these constitutional amendments, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to get power in Turkey, but without any checks and balances.
Garo Paylan, Istanbul Armenian MP of the opposition pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey, told about the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am. He said this as he reflected on Sunday’s constitutional referendum in the country, and as a result of which the Erdoğan-led “Yes” campaign received more than 50 percent of the votes.
Paylan noted that the presidential system will affect the political opposition in Turkey because the political force that gets more than 50 percent will form a majority, and therefore it can do what it wants.
The Armenian MP recalled that the HDP wanted peace at any cost, but Erdoğan was trying in every way to put pressure on opposition parties. Garo Paylan added, however, that even though the Turkish president will continue such actions, they will continue to fight.
According to preliminary results, the “Yes” campaign has won Sunday’s plebiscite by garnering 51.2 percent of the votes.
Eighteen constitutional amendments were put to the vote on Sunday, and according to which Turkey is to transition from a parliamentary to a presidential system of governance. Turkish opposition and international analysts stress, however, that with these amendments, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is gaining the sole right to govern Turkey, and that this is perilous for democracy and freedoms in the country.