Armenian defense ministry spokesperson posts photos showing Ordubad

July 21, 2018 By administrator

Armenian defense ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan has posted photos showing Ordubad – the second largest town in Nakhijevan – and nearby villages. The photos were taken from Armenian positions, he said.

“If this means to control, then turns out we are fully controlling Ordvan-Ordubad and nearby villages. I personally took the photos,” Hovhannisyan said on Facebook, sarcastically referring to the recent Azeri reports where they would take photos of certain Armenian locations in that border section and claim control over it.

Turkey’s Kurd Party HDP sends photos of devastated Cizre to European lawmakers

June 2, 2016 By administrator

picturs send to EU Turkey’s Kurdish problem-focused opposition party has prepared a photo album showing traces of the conflict during curfews in the now-devastated Cizre district in the southeastern province of Şırnak and sent it to European lawmakers.

The album composed of 92 photographs named “Mezopotamya’nın Sevgili Şehri Cizre/The Beloved City of Mesopotamia” was sent to lawmakers from the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said on June 2 in a press release.

“As known, during curfews which have been declared on and off since July 2015, and [one] which was finally started on Dec. 14, 2015, and ended on Feb. 11, 2016, in Cizre, the city has virtually been completely wrecked and hundreds of people have lost their lives,” the HDP said.

After the curfew was lifted, a delegation from the party went to the city and prepared the album, which includes an appendix composed of oral evidence as well as reports in Turkish and English which have been drafted by civil society organizations such as the Human Rights Association (İHD), the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV), the Trade Union of Employees in Public Health and Social Services (SES), the Diyarbakır Bar Association, the Association for Human Rights and Solidarity for the Oppressed (MAZLUMDER), the Libertarian Lawyers Association (ÖHD), the Mesopotamia Lawyers Association (MHD), the Asrın Law Office and the Foundation for Society and Legal Studies (TOHAV). A letter by the United Nations concerning Cizre is also included in the DVD format appendix.

It was also sent to various civil society organizations and political parties at home and abroad.

Meanwhile, HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş was paying a two-day visit to Switzerland to hold talks with leading parliamentarians, as well as senior officials from international institutions.

Demirtaş will hold various talks in Switzerland during his visit on June 2-3, the party’s press office said.

Demirtaş will meet Christa Markwalder, the speaker of the Swiss House of Representatives; Raphaël Comte, the speaker of the Senate; and Christian Levrat, head of the Socialist Party and the president of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

Demirtaş will also hold talks with Martin Chungong, the secretary-general of the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and Gianni Magazzeni, chief of the Americas, Europe and Central Asia branch of the Field Operations and Technical Cooperation Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Following months of fierce debate, a bill that will mainly target HDP lawmakers with the aim of stripping them of their immunity from prosecution was passed last month by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the vocal support of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the founding leader of the party.

Demirtaş, one of two leaders of the third-largest party in parliament, has long said the move is likely to create more violence and stifle democratic politics, as the country has been embroiled in a reignited conflict between security forces and militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) since July 2015.

Demirtaş has also been arguing that Erdoğan’s drive for an executive presidency was preventing the revival of a peace process between the state and the PKK.

June/02/2016

Azerbaijan Shelled Nagorno-Karabakh villages in photos

April 26, 2016 By administrator

Nagorno-Karabakh’s Ministry of Defense has published photos featuring the devastated villages of Martakert and Mataghis following the recent Azerbaijani armed attacks.
The pictures, some of which taken in military posts, are treated as a factual proof demonstrating the Azerbaijani armed forces’ violence against civilian settlements and military objectives.

Martakert_7

Photos prove cooperation between Israel and al-Nusra Report,

March 5, 2015 By administrator

The undated photo obtained by Press TV shows Israeli soldiers speaking face-to-face with foreign-backed militants near the Israeli occupied Golan heights in Syria.

Press TV has obtained photos showing al-Qaeda-linked militants next to Israeli soldiers in the occupied Golan Heights.

New photos from the Golan Heights further prove Tel Aviv’s support for al-Qaeda-linked militants, especially al-Nusra Front, that have been wreaking havoc in Syria.

The photos obtained by Press TV show Takfiri militants from the terrorist al-Nusra Front next to Israeli soldiers.

Israel is known to have been providing medical, intelligence and military support for militants fighting to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. A number of militant commanders wounded in government attacks on terrorist have reportedly been hospitalized in the occupied territories.

The images obtained by Press TV shows Israeli soldiers speaking face-to-face with militants in Golan.
Cooperation aimed at targeting resistance

The Israeli military’s close cooperation with the militants also assisted the regime’s bombing of a convoy belonging to Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah on January 17. The attack led to the killing of six Hezbollah members as well as an Iranian general. Hezbollah later announced that the attack was coordinated between Tel Aviv and the al-Nusra militants.

“The assault has revealed the degree of cooperation between Takfiris and Israel,” Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah deputy leader, said during a ceremony seven days after the Israeli attack in Qunaitra, an area close to the Syrian Israeli border.

Late last year, a UN report confirmed contact between militants in Syria and the Israeli army across the Golan cease-fire line, especially during heavy clashes between the terrorists and the Syrian troops.

The report also confirmed that militants had been taking their wounded comrades into the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan Heights for treatment. The UN also confirmed the delivery of boxes by the Israeli army to militants on the Syrian side of the ceasefire line.

Turkey Scrambles to Undo ‘Mistaken’ Publication of Armenian Genocide Monument Photo

January 31, 2015 By administrator

by Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

The Foreign Ministry has scrambled to distance itself from the photo and an official has said that an investigation has been undertaken to determine how such an error was possible, assuring that the person responsible will be punished.

The official also vigorously denied that the photograph is part of a new policy of “openness” toward Armenia, and added that most of the calendars have not yet been distributed.

The photograph in question is of the “Monument to the Armenian Genocide” erected in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, and the picture included in an official calendar prepared to commemorate the Battle of Çanakkale (the Dardanelles Campaign), fought by Turkey against allied forces during the First World War. For months the Ottoman troops successfully repelled Allied forces, who eventually had to withdraw to Egypt.

This is Turkey’s second major blunder concerning Armenia in just weeks. Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan invited world leaders, including Armenian President Serzh Sarkysian, to participate in festivities to be held in Turkey to celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli on April 24. That is the very day when Armenians have been preparing an international event dedicated to the memory of the Armenian victims.

On Thursday, Turkish President Erdoğan stated that Ankara is “ready to pay for any misdeed” if an “impartial board of historians” concludes that it was at fault for the events of 1915, though he continues to vehemently deny that any genocide was committed.

“We are not obliged to accept that the so-called Armenian genocide was ‘made-to-order,’” he said.

Erdoğan also said that while he was prime minister, he had sent a letter to former Armenian President Robert Kocharian, proposing that impartial historians investigate the 1915 killings of Anatolian Armenians during the Ottoman era.

Earlier this month, Erdoğan stated that he would “actively” challenge a campaign to pressure Turkey to recognize the massacres as genocide.

Pope Francis has announced that he will celebrated a Mass of commemoration of the Armenian slaughter in the Vatican on April 12, and has called it the first in a series of genocides in the 20th century.

#armeniangenocide

Aleppo Photographer Brings Syrian Reality to the United Nations

January 22, 2015 By administrator

Hagop Vanesian’s exhibition, “My Homeland,” ran at the United Nations Headquarters from January 8-16.

by Eva Bartlett,

Twenty-six distinct photos, in black and white. Scenes of a ravaged city and the human beings within struggling to exist, let alone to find hope for the future. Gravestones of rubble. Homes looted, trashed. Civilians defending their country. Children aged beyond their years by the horrors they’ve lived.

Hagop Vanesian, a 44 year old Syrian-Armenian photographer from Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo (Halab), was meticulous in his choice of photographs for the exhibition, “My Homeland,” which opened at the United Nations Headquarters on January 8 and runs until January 16.

“I chose the photographs showing the destruction, and children. I have many photographs of children, maybe 25-30 percent are of children, these little angels suffering. They are innocent, they don’t understand about politics, they suffer a lot.”

Vanesian, a silversmith by trade, started taking photos twelve years ago, and very early on started documenting his city, building by building.

“Before the war, I was doing documentary photography all over Aleppo. Everyday, I took my camera and photographed people, how they were living,” Vanesian said. “When the war started, I decided to document it. It was very hard at first. For the first couple of days, I couldn’t take a single photograph. This was my birth place, where I grew up. I have memories there, but even my memories were destroyed, especially in Old Aleppo.”

Iman Tahan, from Aleppo, spoke of her feelings after seeing the photos. “These photos, I wish they weren’t real, I wish nothing like this had happened to my country. I remember every street in these photos. I feel so sad, a lot of memories there.”

One of the memories she spoke of was the murder of her father, in his home, by terrorists.

“We have a well in our house, and since there’s no water—because the ‘rebels’ broke the pipes—my father was giving water to neighbours. He was in his house when a sniper entered the garden and shot him, killed him. Those ‘rebels’ don’t represent the Syrian people. Syrian soldiers aren’t fighting against normal people, they’re fighting against people equipped with the most advanced weapons and trained just to come to Syria. They destroy our homes, churches, mosques. But what makes me happy, our people, because they love Syria so much, decided not to leave. Even my dad, he knew he lived in a very dangerous area, but he decided not to leave, and he paid for it with his life.”

Narrating to those around him, Vanesian explained the significance of and story behind each photo. Of one photo, a smiling woman holding a photo of a young man, he said: “When she saw me photographing, she started to cry. She said, ‘please, don’t photograph this, let us remember Aleppo as it was.’ Then she asked me to photograph she and her son. From her purse she took a photograph of her son, with a big, proud smile. Her son was martyred. Brave woman, Syrian woman.”

For Vanesian, the stories behind the photos need to be told. “Some photographers have come and taken photos, stayed one week, two weeks… They photographed the camps, photographed the war from the other side. Maybe they got more powerful photographs than me. But what I got, I got the stories of the people. Because I lived there, I suffered like them. As they were living, I was living. Without water, without electricity.”

Until about eight months ago, Vanesian was living the life of an average Syrian in Aleppo, except that he was also documenting it.

“One day, I was walking in the Old City, drinking sahlab (made of milk, with cinnamon),” he said. “After I finished, I threw my cup on the ground… there was no trash can. I saw a child, maybe four years old, pick up the cup and start licking the remainders of the sahlab. I couldn’t bring myself to photograph him. When I saw this child licking my cup, I thought, ‘where is the humanity?’ I can’t forget him.”

Pointing at his photographs, he noted two “residential graveyard” photos: one, a group of children and women sitting amongst the gravestones, and the second, a young girl standing near a tombstone.

“Residential areas in Aleppo, and children’s playgrounds, have turned into graveyards. The tombstones of these graves are made from stones from collapsed buildings. I asked the girl in the second photo, ‘What are you doing?’ It was a snowy day. She said she wanted to know where they were going to put the body of her aunt, she wanted to see the place.”

Regarding the photo of a sombre-faced boy, dressed in a suit jacket for ‘Eid holiday, he commented: “That boy, his father is kidnapped, his mother killed. He’s living with his aunt, near the front line of the fighting. Did you see his eyes? I didn’t find any children smiling. They’ve lost their smiles.”

Other photographs show the expected bullet-ridden walls and bullet-shredded metal doors, including one photo with two children, likewise sombre-faced, standing next to a warped metal door.

“If you look closely at the children’s eyes, you see the anger. They’re not smiling, they’re like adults. They grew up, they saw what adults see. They’re around 10 and 13 years old. Before, children in Syria were smiling, but these last few years, you don’t see that. They will need psychological treatment in the future. The psychological damage is worse than the physical damage.”

One particularly poignant photograph—a man with one leg missing, on crutches, gun slung over shoulder—shows the determination of the man, reflects the determination of Syria, to fight back and survive.

“He’s defending his neighbourhood in Aleppo, but actually he was displaced from Nubool, the village where he lost his leg during fighting. He is still fighting, even with one leg. He will fight to the end,” said Vanesian.

Two photos of homes looted and destroyed, one Christian, one Muslim, speak of Syria’s multi-religious fabric, that most Syrians I’ve spoken with maintain was never sectarian.

“I intentionally put these photos side-by-side. It’s not only Muslim houses that are looted, Christian homes are too. They don’t differentiate, doesn’t matter whose house, they’re going to loot it.”

Unsurprisingly, the anti-Syrian group, the so-called “National Syrian Coalition” issued a letter accusing the exhibition as being propaganda, and calling for the display to be shut down.

Syrians attending the exhibition felt otherwise.

Rana Nasrallah, a Syrian from the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, now living in New Jersey, was among Syrian expats attending the exhibition.

“Each picture talks, speaks of the different problems in Syria. These photos show the truth exactly as it is in Syria. I was in Syria a month and a half ago, I saw with my eyes. I had a good life there. I feel broken for what has happened to my country.”

Fadi, from Midan, what he describes as a mixed Armenian-Muslim area of Aleppo near the front line of the fighting, agreed that the exhibition was representative of the reality.

“One hundred percent, the photos tell the truth. I’m Muslim. We never had any sectarian problems. We lived together, doesn’t matter what you believe, who you pray to. Now…”

Al-Akhbar and al-Mayadeen correspondent Nizar Abboud attended, reporting on the exhibition but also pointing out the need for such an exhibition. “The world is hearing one point of view on Syria, and this is not by coincidence. I think this is premeditated. Also, there is self-censorship in the media, including my colleagues who work at the United Nations. They like to play the tunes those who pay them would like to hear. “

Earlier, in a private interview, the Syrian Ambassador to the UN, Dr. Bashar al-Ja’afari—who organized and attended the exhibition—told me: “For four years I have been trying very hard to do something inside the UN. Every time we attempted to do something, we were confronted by a huge amount of bureaucracy and excuses.” He, too, said the intent of the exhibition was not political. “It’s about Syria and the Syrian people. It’s about what happened in Aleppo, through undeniable photos. Any honest, objective Syrian who loves his homeland should have a great interest in showing what is going on in Syria. All Syrians should push for organizing more exhibitions, not only at the United Nations but all over the world.”

One of the accusations thrown at Vanesian is that he had photographed only from areas where the Syrian army was present.

“I photograph the front lines, so I need protection, like most photojournalists in areas of war. Transportation is no longer safe in Syria. Some of my friends and relatives have been kidnapped and we haven’t heard about them for over a year.”

That said, Vanesian took risks with many of his photos, including one shot from the side of the terrorists, unbeknownst to their snipers.

“Most front line lanes are covered with fabric, to block the view of snipers and prevent them from shooting the other side. When I took this photo, my back was to the snipers, but I was hiding behind a stone. The other side of the fabric is the safe area, but I came to this side to take the photo. If I had moved my head, I would have gotten shot. If you put your finger up, they’ll shoot right away.”

While the photographs and the issue of Syria under war from the NATO-Gulf-Turkish-Zionist alliance are inherently political, Vanesian maintains that his objective is solely humanitarian.

“I’m not doing this for political reasons, I just take the photos to let people see what is happening. With my photographs, I just want one thing: for people to remember there are people suffering in Syria. Just let them think, for a moment, about the suffering. I can’t bring back Aleppo as it was. I lost it, as I lost friends, relatives… I can’t bring my city back. The market in Aleppo was the longest enclosed market (in the world). It is burned completely. The destruction of Aleppo is a shame for humanity. The heritage has been destroyed; it belongs to all the world.

All those people in my photos, I didn’t just click the shutter, didn’t just take their photographs, I got their stories. I didn’t make money from their photos. I wanted to show these photos for humanitarian reasons, nothing else.”

Hagop Vanesian’s website is: http://www.hagopvanesian.com

Eva Bartlett is a Canadian freelance journalist and activist who has lived in and written from the Gaza Strip, Syria, and Lebanon. Her blog is https://ingaza.wordpress.com/