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Armenian Villagers oppose a gold mine project

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Armenia gold mine projectDozens of residents of a village in Lori province in western Armenia blocked a local road Wednesday to protest against the project of an obscure private company that is considering looking for gold near Of their community.

They fear that the mine project, if implemented, will wreak havoc on the local ecosystem by contaminating the forests and pastures surrounding the village of Ardvi. They claim that the open-cast mines will also frighten tourists who visit the 10th century shrines located in Ardvi.

The company in question, called Miram, has so far disclosed only a few details of its plans to develop a gold mine in the region. It has not yet obtained government approval for the proposed operation.

The Armenian law requires that companies wishing to obtain mining licenses organize public hearings in the communities affected by their operations. Miram planned to hold such a discussion on Wednesday.

The villagers disrupted the procedure by blocking a road leading to Ardvi. “Our gold is our nature,” said one of the angry protesters.

“Their goal is to destroy our village. We will not accept any hearing, “shouted another villager.

The representatives of Miram never showed up. Until now, Arayik Zadoyan – director of a restaurant in the provincial capital Vanadzor – was among the shareholders of the company. The restaurant in question belongs to Vahram Baghdasarian, the parliamentary leader of the Republican Party.

Zadoyan said on Wednesday that he no longer owns shares in Miram. He added that the company is controlled by one of his friends from Russia.

Thursday, July 27, 2017,
Claire © armenews.com

Turkey: Police detain at least 61 people in Ankara protest

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At least 61 people have been arrested in the Turkish capital after taking part in demonstrations held in support of two teachers arrested as part of the country’s post-coup crackdown.

Turkish police used water cannons and pepper spray to disperse the crowds gathered in Ankara’s Kizilay square on Sunday.

The protest was held in a show of support for Literature professor Nuriye Gulmen, 35, and primary school teacher Semih Ozakca, 28,  who were arrested about two months ago for going on hunger strike after being fired as part of Ankara’s public sector purge following a failed military coup.

The two teachers claimed that their hunger strike was aimed at highlighting the predicament of about 150,000 state employees who have been suspended or fired since the failed putsch.

Turkey witnessed a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, when a faction of the Turkish military declared that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was no more in charge of the country.

Over the course of some two days, however, the coup was suppressed. Almost 250 people were killed and nearly 2,200 others wounded in the abortive coup.

Since then, Ankara has been engaged in suppressing perceived putschists and sympathizers.

Over 40,000 people have been arrested and 120,000 others sacked or suspended from a wide range of professions over alleged links with the coup attempt.

Critics say President Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to eliminate his opponents.

Egyptians protest plan to cede islands to Saudi

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Egyptians protest plan to cede islands to SaudiEgyptians continue to take to the streets against the parliament’s recent approval of a controversial plan to transfer the sovereignty of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, even after police arrested dozens of activists who had called for mass protests.

Egyptian police raided homes in the capital, Cairo, and at least 10 provinces across the country and arrested at least 40 people before nightfall on Thursday, said lawyers Mohammed Abdel-Aziz and Gamal Eid.

The detainees, most of whom were linked to secular democratic parties, have been arrested for calls on social media for protests to be held Friday at Cairo’s Tahrir Square against the parliament’s Wednesday approval of a deal to hand over the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia.

At least eight people, including three journalists, were also arrested during a rally on Tuesday, facing charges of disrupting public services and security and protesting without a permit, said the lawyers.

“The government has chosen more oppression rather than dialog,” Eid said. “The arrests are meant to distract anyone who intends to protest tomorrow and sow confusion in the ranks of the opposition.”

A Facebook page named “Giving up land is treason,” has urged people to protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Thousands have so far backed the call.

Last year, a similar call for protests over the islands drew thousands of people. Police, which had been deployed in large numbers, beat up and arrested hundreds of protesters and activists.

The deal, which was agreed during a visit to Egypt by Saudi King Salman in April 2016, has so far been subject to challenges in court over the past year. It even became a source of tension between Riyadh and Cairo.

A court ruled in January that the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, which insists the islands belong to Saudi Arabia, had failed to provide evidence that the islands were originally Saudi. The ruling was, however, overturned by another court a few months later.

Eventually, a senior constitutional panel concluded that the court that had ruled to annul the deal had acted within its jurisdiction. But the parliament has insisted that the issue of the islands lies in its own jurisdiction.

Final approval is now needed from President Sisi, a former army general, who cut the deal with Saudi Arabia in the first place and who reportedly served for a while as Egypt’s military attaché in Riyadh during Egypt’s then-president Hosni Mubarak’s government.

Opponents accuse Sisi of “selling” Egyptian sovereign territory to the Saudi kingdom in return for billions of dollars in aid from Riyadh.

News and Update from Terrorist State of Turkey, Thousands march opposition MP & jail sentence to UN judge Adif Sedaf Akay

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Turkey protest,Turkey protests: Thousands march after court convicts opposition MP

Thousands of Turkish demonstrators have marched through Ankara to protest against the jailing of an opposition lawmaker. Enis Berberoglu was this week sentenced to 25 years in prison on spying charges.

Supporters of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) packed into a park in central Ankara on Thursday, waving Turkish flags and banners emblazoned with the word “Justice.”

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu (pictured above, center) called the protest on Wednesday after a court found one of the party’s deputies, Enis Berberoglu, guilty of leaking a video that purportedly showed Turkey smuggling weapons to Syrian rebels. Berberoglu was given a 25-year prison sentence.

Kilicdaroglu described the decision as lawless and politically motivated. Holding a sign reading “Adalet,” meaning justice in Turkish, he vowed to march the 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Ankara to the Istanbul prison where Berberoglu is being held.

Thousands of protesters joined CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu as he began his long walk to Istanbul

“If there is a price to pay then I will be the first to pay it,” he said. “I am going to walk and I am going to walk all the way to Istanbul. And we will continue this march until there is justice in Turkey.”

Party officials said they expect the walk could take the 68-year-old politician at least 20 days. A number of CHP members tweeted images from the protest.

Ongoing post-coup crackdown 

During Berberoglu’s trial, prosecutors argued the lawmaker had passed on information to the Cumhuriyet newspaper that suggested Turkish intelligence services were shipping weapons and ammunition across the Syrian border to Islamist rebels. The paper published the story in 2015.

Berberoglu is the first lawmaker from the main secular opposition CHP to be jailed since the government crackdown that followed last year’s failed coup. Tens of thousands of people have been arrested or fired from their jobs in the wake of the July 15 putsch attempt. Among the detained are 11 lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) – the third-largest party in parliament.

Turkey hands jail sentence to UN judge Adif Sedaf Akay

A Turkish court has sentenced top UN judge Adif Sedaf Akay to more than seven years in jail over alleged ties to a group blamed for a failed coup attempt. The UN war crimes court in The Hague says the move is illegal.

An Ankara court hearing the case on Thursday sentenced Akay, who is attached to the UN’s Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), to seven years and six months in prison.

The judge was charged with “membership in an armed terror group” over his alleged links to the organization of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based preacher that Turkey has blamed for the attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

As repression deepens, Turkish artists and intellectuals fear the worst

Dismissed Turkish professor says ongoing crackdown ‘a political purge’

The court found Akay guilty of using Bylock, a communications service that Ankara claims was especially created for Gulen supporters.

Akay has strongly denied the allegations, which have caused uproar in the international community.

After the sentence was passed, Akay – who was arrested at his family home last September – was released under judicial supervision pending confirmation of the verdict by Turkey’s top appeals court, the Yargitay. The court placed an international travel ban on Akay, meaning he will not be able to resume his work at MICT.

Work on Rwanda genocide

Akay had been working with the UN international court trying suspects over the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. His detention has paralyzed proceedings at an appeal hearing of former Rwandan minister Augustin Ngirabatware.

In a statement from MICT, president Judge Theodor Meron said he “deeply regrets this action of the Turkish authorities, in further breach of Judge Akay’s protected status under the international legal framework.”

The judge’s arrest in September last year, his detention since then, and a legal case against him “are inconsistent with the assertion of his diplomatic immunity by the United Nations,” the MICT said. In March, The Hague referred Turkey to the UN Security Council in relation to the affair.

American Armenians to protest Erdogan’s visit to Washington

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Armenians of America will stage a protest action in front of the White House on May 16 to protest Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington and his meeting with President Donald Trump.

“This is President Trump’s chance to stand up to Erdogan. It’s time to challenge Erdogan’s arm-twisting and – even more importantly – to call out the Turkish government’s covert campaign to hijack U.S. policy through questionable payments to foreign agents, lobbyists, and other influence peddlers,” said Aram Hamparian, Armenian National Committee of America Executive Director.

“He can start putting American principles and priorities first by rejecting Ankara’s gag-rule against honest U.S. remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.”

The Armenian National Committee of America will be joining with a broad array of human rights, religious freedom, Kurdish, Hellenic and Assyrian groups in front of the White House to call attention to President Erdogan’s repression at home and aggression abroad.

Iran: Armenian Protesters in Tehran demand Turkey to recognize Armenian Genocide (video)

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Protesters gathered around Tehran‘s St. Sarkis Cathedral on Monday, April 24 to mark the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Ruptly TV reports.

In the capital, the demonstrators called on Turkey to recognize the mass killings of 1,5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

102 years have passed since the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, perpetrated in the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923.

 

https://youtu.be/BFGB8LYNpvc

Turks protest against referendum result in Istanbul

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Several hundred demonstrators have poured out onto the streets of Istanbul to protest the outcome of last week’s disputed referendum in which voters narrowly approved expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s executive powers.

Chanting anti-Erdogan slogans during Saturday’s march, the protesters vowed to stay on the streets until the referendum’s result is annulled.

They carried banners reading, “No to one-man rule,” “Referendum should be annulled,” and “No. We won!” A demonstrator held up a cartoon of Erdogan reading, “They don’t let me be the president.”

“There is hatred and anxiety around us. We are going in the direction opposite to one we should be going. I am trying to make myself heard as this is the only thing I can do,” said protester Aysu Kaya.

In the April 16 referendum, Erdogan’s ‘Yes’ campaign won 51.36 percent of the votes, while the ‘No’ campaign gained 48.64 percent. Turkey’s three largest cities – Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir – voted against the constitutional reforms.

Erdogan declared victory in the vote, but opponents said the referendum was deeply flawed.

On Friday, Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) filed a court appeal against a decision by electoral authorities to accept unstamped ballot papers in the tightly contested vote.

Protester Yasar Sagturk said the demonstrators “have never had expectations from the judicial process.”

“They have always been partial. We will continue to be in the streets. We will be in the streets until the end,” he said.

Additionally, Sahin Akcay, another participant in Saturday’s rally, said, “We embarked on a journey and there is no return. We are resisting, and we will be the winners in the end.”

Supporters of the fresh constitutional changes argue that they will modernize the country, but opponents fear a possible authoritarian rule.

Under the new system, the office and position of prime minister would be scrapped in Turkey and the president would be granted executive powers to directly appoint top public officials, including ministers, and assign one or several vice presidents.

It further states that Turkey’s next presidential and parliamentary elections will be held simultaneously on November 3, 2019 and the head of state would have a five-year tenure, for a maximum of two terms.

The constitutional changes would mean that Erdogan could stay in power for another two terms until 2029.

Turkey: Protests have been staged in Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Antalya & Eskişehir.while #Trump Congratulate #Erdogan

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People protesting referendum result

Protests have been staged in Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Antalya and Eskişehir.

People claiming that there had been irregularities in the referendum staged protested in different cities of Turkey.

In Kadıköy district of Istanbul, people carrying posters that read “No, we will win” marched to the office of Supreme Board of Election of Turkey.

People shouted slogans like, “We are calling SBE to account”, “No to one-man regime, dependent judiciary, party-state and presidential system”.

Police intervention and detention in Antalya and İzmir

Police attacked the people protesting in Antalya and İzmir, and some protesters are detained.

In Ankara, students of Middle East Technical University marched. They shouted, “No, it is not over, we have just started”, “We won’t surrender to the dictator”. People also staged protests in different districts of Ankara, objecting the last minute decision of SBE.

In Eskişehir, university students staged protests.

Anti-Erdogan rally draws 30,000 in Frankfurt Germany

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Some 30,000 pro-Kurdish demonstrators rallied in the German city of Frankfurt on Saturday calling for “democracy in Turkey” and urging a “no” vote in an upcoming referendum on expanding Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s powers.

Turkey angrily denounced the demonstration as “unacceptable.” Many demonstrators carried symbols of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has battled the Turkish state for over three decades.

Tensions are already running high between Berlin and Ankara after German authorities refused to allow some Turkish ministers to campaign in the country for a “yes” vote in the April 16 referendum, which would hand Erdogan an executive presidency.

Significantly more people turned up for the rally than organizers had been expecting. It took place ahead of the annual Nowrouz festival, when Kurds mark the traditional New Year.

The Saturday protest march in Frankfurt went off peacefully, a police spokesman said.

Some of the participants carried flags and banners of the outlawed PKK, as well as portraits of the group’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence in Turkey, calling for his release.

Police said no banners or flags were confiscated so as to not provoke the crowd, but added that photos had been taken which could lead to future prosecutions.

More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched its insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984. The group is listed as a terror organization not just by Turkey but also the European Union — including Germany — and the United States.

Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in a statement that the presidency “condemned in the strongest terms” the fact that the rally had been allowed to go ahead.

He said the “scandal” of the Frankfurt demonstration showed that some EU countries were actively working in favor of a “no” vote in the critical referendum.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in statement that Germany’s toleration of a rally with symbols of a group that it itself regards as a terror outfit was the “worst example of double standards.”

Erdogan on Monday accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of “supporting terrorists,” in a spiraling diplomatic row.

Turkey has long accused Germany of providing refuge to Kurdish and other militants.

A Merkel spokesman described Erdogan’s jibe as “clearly absurd.”

Erdogan has also accused Germany of “Nazi practices” for blocking his ministers from speaking to Turkish voters resident in Germany.

Germany is home to the largest Turkish diaspora in the world, many of whom are of Kurdish origin.

(Source: AFP)

Armenians of Argentina stage protest near Azerbaijani embassy

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The Armenian youth in Argentina held a demonstration during the afternoon of Friday 3 March in front of the Azerbaijani embassy on the 29th anniversary of the Armenian pogroms in the Azerbaijani cities of Sumgait, Baku and Kirovabad, Prensa Armenia reported.

“The authoritarian regime of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spends millions of petrodollars on events and publicity to wash away the image of his corrupt government while keeping the civilian population in extreme poverty and harassing and persecuting journalism and opposition,” said Brenda Kechiyan, member of Armenian Youth Federation of South America in her speech.

A large number of members of the Armenian community came to support the demonstration, with a strong presence of Homenetmen scouts.

“As opposed to a dictatorial regime that oppresses its population, which censures the press and systematically denies the Armenian Genocide along with Turkey, is the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, which in September 2016 celebrated 25 years of independence, democracy, of elected governments at the polls that work day by day to improve the quality of life of their people,” added Kechiyan, who then asked for the freedom of Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin.

“This is why today we call the international community, but above all the Argentine authorities, to recognize the self-determination of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh as a free and independent State, and to condemn denialism in all its forms.”