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Armenian member of Turkey parliament on referendum result: Presidential system will affect opposition

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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.

System Of A Down confirm new album: It’s 100% happening

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System Of A Down Credit: Getty


System Of A Down Credit: Getty

System Of A Down have given an update on their long-awaited new album – revealing that it’s “100% happening” and that they have 15 songs ready so far, NME reports.

The “Chop Suey” rock heroes were believed to be working on new material after sharing photos that appear to show them in the recording studio – before announcing a string of European festival dates and their return to the UK with a headline set at Download 2017.

Now, the band have revealed that progress on their first album since 2005’s ‘Mesmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize’ is well underway.

“We’ve been working on a new album for the last six months and there’s about 15 songs that I think are album-worthy,” drummer John Dolmayan told Kerrang. “We don’t know what’s happening in terms of release, it’s still not 100% as far as plans go.

“I want everyone on board and feeling good about it, that’s what we’re trying to accomplish right now. There’s a tremendous amount of pressure on us, though, because it’s been 11 years – at least 12 by the time it comes out.”

He continued: “Our playing ability is better than it ever has been and we’re trying new things. We’re not trying to make “Toxicity” Part II, just because it was by far our biggest album. This needs to be something for a new generation of SOAD fans, so everyone can see we’re not resting on our laurels. I’m not gonna put my name on an album I’m not 100% proud of. I know there’s a lot of talk, we read a lot of it – trust me. Especially Shavo, he loves that shit!”

Dolymayan added: “The fans are saying a lot of things, we understand their frustration and the fact it comes from a place of passion, for the most part. SOAD is definitely making an album, we just don’t know what terms it will be made on.”

Meanwhile, System Of A Down are set to headline Download festival 2017 alongside Biffy Clyro, System Of A Down and Aerosmith – with Slayer, Prophets Of Rage, AFI, Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch, Of Mice & Men, Fozzy, Sleeping With Sirens, Simple Plan, Every Time I Die, The Story So Far, Slayer and Motionless In White also set to perform.

Download Festival takes place from 9-11 June 2017 at Donington Park in Derbyshire. Tickets are on sale now.

Related links:

NME: System Of A Down give update on new album

Buk system spotted during Armenia’s Independence Day parade rehearsal

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buk-systemA Buk missile system was displayed during rehearsals ahead of Armenia’s Independence Day parade on Friday, September 16 at the Republic Square in Yerevan.

Preparations for the parade are currently underway, with large amounts of military equipment already transported to Yerevan.

Also, Armenia will showcase Smerch multiple rocket launchers during the parade.

The Smerch systems include 9A52-2 and 9A52-2 launch vehicles, 9Տ234 or 9Տ234-2 transloaders, 300mm rockets and other fire control equipment, as well as a 1B44 Meteorological Complex.

Special Report: Harnessing the Immune System to Fight Cancer

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immune system-cancer

Steve Cara in an examination room at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Mr. Cara learned two years ago that he had advanced lung cancer, but immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint inhibitors have helped wipe out the disease. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

By DENISE GRADY

(nytimes) Steve Cara expected to sail through the routine medical tests required to increase his life insurance in October 2014. But the results were devastating. He had lung cancer, at age 53. It had begun to spread, and doctors told him it was inoperable.

A few years ago, they would have suggested chemotherapy. Instead, his oncologist, Dr. Matthew D. Hellmann of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, recommended an experimental treatment: immunotherapy. Rather than attacking the cancer directly, as chemo does, immunotherapy tries to rally the patient’s own immune system to fight the disease.

Uncertain, Mr. Cara sought a second opinion. A doctor at another major hospital read his scans and pathology report, then asked what Dr. Hellmann had advised. When the doctor heard the answer, Mr. Cara recalled, “he closed up the folder, handed it back to me and said, ‘Run back there as fast as you can.’”

Many others are racing down the same path. Harnessing the immune system to fight cancer, long a medical dream, is becoming a reality. Remarkable stories of tumors melting away and terminal illnesses going into remissions that last years — backed by solid data — have led to an explosion of interest and billions of dollars of investments in the rapidly growing field of immunotherapy. Pharmaceutical companies, philanthropists and the federal government’s “cancer moonshot” program are pouring money into developing treatments. Medical conferences on the topic are packed.

All this has brought new optimism to cancer doctors — a sense that they have begun tapping into a force of nature, the medical equivalent of splitting the atom.

“This is a fundamental change in the way that we think about cancer therapy,” said Dr. Jedd Wolchok, chief of melanoma and immunotherapeutics services at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Hundreds of clinical trials involving immunotherapy, alone or combined with other treatments, are underway for nearly every type of cancer. “People are asking, waiting, pleading to get into these trials,” said Dr. Arlene Siefker-Radtke, an oncologist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who specializes in bladder cancer.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/health/harnessing-the-immune-system-to-fight-cancer.html?emc=edit_ta_20160730&nlid=49769097&ref=headline&_r=0

 

System of a Down’s Serj Tankian Perform New Political Song ‘Artsakh’

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Karabakh music

Serj Tankian has recorded “Artsakh,” a song calling for solidarity among Armenians in the disputed region of Azerbaijan.

Passionate acoustic tune calls for solidarity among Armenians in disputed region of Azerbaijan.

System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian was so moved by the resilience of Armenian fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan that neighbors Armenia, during a four-day war in April that he wrote a passionate new political folk song, “Artsakh,” in deference to them. The song voices support for the people of Artsakh – the Armenian name for the region – and protests what Tankian describes as Azeri aggression.

“These people have lived on those lands for thousands of years,” the singer wrote in a statement. “They have struggle but also great beauty written on their foreheads. The whimsical appropriation of land by an empire (Stalin) placed them under Azerbaijan. They have since gained their independence and have lived a prosperous existence for the last 20 or so years. I do not believe in wars and ultimately borders but I deeply believe in self-determination and life without oppression. Therefore it is time for the world to recognize them as the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).”

Violence broke out in the region on April 2nd, prompting Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, to call for the “immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from our territories,” according to The Washington Post. As the situation worsened, Azerbaijani troops attempted to take control of the region. The paper reported scores of deaths, the worst in the region since 1994. A ceasefire was declared on April 5th. Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced his support of a truce, according to Armenia Now.

“It’s a crazy provocation,” the singer tells Rolling Stone. “It’s a land that these people have lived on from the beginning of time, from time immemorial, with children springing from the rivers and generations coming from their mountains. There is a national liberation struggle embedded within their character, their public mask, if you will. It goes on through trying to create peace. We will ultimately win with culture and all this beautiful stuff.”

Tankian made a video for the song, on which he sings and plays guitar, this past weekend.

“Artsakh” lyrics, translated:

We’ve always lived on these lands,

Reaped and harvested these fields,

Generations sprung from your rivers,

Children born from your mountains,

The public mask of tradition,

The struggle for liberation or death,

The enemy’s gaze at your terrain,

Our smiles at your bosom,

At your bottomless will.

We’re going to sing with our fists

With the tricolor flag of justice,

Humanitarian love of peace

With the holy blessing of a child’s face,

We are going to prevail with culture

We are going to prevail with culture

We are going to prevail by being Armenian.

Source: http://www.rollingstone.com

Armenia-Russia, Air defense systems deal with Armenia may be proposed to Putin

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199322The Russian government on Thursday, October 22, will discuss the transfer to President Vladimir Putin of a proposal to sign an agreement with Armenia to establish a joint regional air defense system in the Caucasus region of collective security, the Cabinet press office reports, according to RIA Novosti.

Earlier, First Deputy Chief of the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces, Lieutenant-General Pavel Kurachenko said a draft agreement to establish such a system with Armenia was being prepared for signing after the internal coordination procedures were completed.

He also added that Russia is currently working on joint regional air defense systems with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Related links:

РИА Новости: Правительство может предложить Путину соглашение по ПВО с Арменией
Razm.info: Հայաստանն ու Ռուսաստանը ստեղծում են տարածաշրջանային միացյալ ՀՕՊ համակարգ

Turkey’s election system the ‘most unfair’ in the world “10% threshold”

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0,,17844320_303,00Turkey is set to hold parliamentary elections on June 7. But, under the country’s unique voting system, any outcome is set to be biased. Sertan Sanderson reports.

With days to go until general elections, the fairness of Turkey’s voting system has come under international scrutiny. When compared with other democracies, the Turkish voting system would appear to be biased toward winners, deliberately leaving political underdogs in the lurch.

The British daily newspaper The Guardian reported that Turkey had “the world’s most unfair election system.” This was based on the fact that a 10 percent threshold kept smaller political movements from entering parliament – forfeiting dozens of seats to their rivals under the so-called d’Hondt voting system, which allocates parliamentary seats proportionally according to vote totals.

The Guardian, however, criticized that Turkey only allocated seats in proportional numbers to political parties that won at least 10 percent of the vote.

Threshold not unique to Turkey

Though such a barrier is not exclusive to Turkey, 10 percent is the highest threshold of its kind. German politics employ a 5 percent threshold, and many other countries – the United Kingdom, France and Portugal among them – don’t feature any such hurdle.

The Turkish voting system is also regarded as unjust for facilitating minority governments. Under certain circumstances, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) could manage to gain a majority of parliamentary seats with merely 45 percent of the popular vote, in which case the wishes of 55 percent of the electorate could effectively be ignored.

These elections guidelines could create an unpredictable outcome at Sunday’s polls. While AKP has managed to grow support in its 13-year-reign, taking full advantage of the 10 percent threshold, the latest polls suggest that its luck may change. The Konda Research and Consultancy institute in Istanbul gave the party of President Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu only about 41 percent of the vote.

The rise of HDP supporters

0,,17800154_404,00The reason for this shift could be the rise of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). With the latest projections showing the new movement dangerously close to reaching 10 percent, Erdogan took to the streets in person to attract more AKP votes – despite a ban prohibiting the president from campaigning for elections.

If the HDP were to win 10 percent, the AKP would lose 70 seats in Turkey’s Grand National Assembly, and with it its majority status. Sinan Ulgen, head of the Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies in Istanbul, said that this election was going to be fraught with surprises:

“The outcome of the June 7 elections will be a lot more difficult to predict than the last two campaigns,” he told DW. “The truth of the matter is that HDP has come very close to overcoming such a great political hurdle as the 10 percent rule. In fact, it will likely overcome it.”

Historically attracting between 5 and 6 percent of the vote, the HDP’s momentum could therefore be a direct threat to 13 years of the AKP’s unchallenged rule. But a coalition between the two parties has largely been ruled out.

Other contenders, such as the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), should be growing equally worried. Anti-AKP voters are seen as strategically aligning their vote with the HDP (in lieu of other opposition parties), hoping to keep the anti-establishment spirit of the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Istanbul alive at the ballot boxes. The HDP was the biggest party supporter of the protests.

Even if the three opposition parties were to gain more seats combined than the AKP, a coalition looks highly unlikely because of their fundamental differences.

Turkey’s unusual approach to democracy

As president, Erdogan would also have the liberty to give the AKP a mandate to build a minority government – another odd feature of Turkey’s distinctive approach to democracy. Despite having more combined votes and seats than the AKP, a hypothetical coalition of all opposition parties would therefore still remain just that: the opposition.

In a show of pro-democracy attitude, the AKP has eased procedures involved in casting votes abroad, inviting almost 3 million Turks living in foreign states – including more than 1 million in Germany – to partake in elections. In the end it was reported that the initiative attracted 37 percent of those living abroad, or slightly over 1 million votes in total.

Turkish elections tend to attract some of the world’s highest turnouts, averaging about 85 percent voter participation – partly because of to the fact that voting was made compulsory as part of electoral reforms in 1983. The 10 percent threshold was also introduced then.

Ironically, all this was done in order to keep pro-Kurdish factions out of parliament, feeding the pro-Kurdish HDP’s ambition to break this barrier even more. But, at the same time, it is exactly a high turnout that opposition parties should dread most, as high attendance is statistically linked in Turkey to re-electing incumbent governments.

Erdogan needs majority to change constitution

With Erdogan hoping to change Turkey’s constitution if the AKP wins re-election, there is more at stake than merely a balance sheet of parliamentary seats. Depending on the election’s outcome, the president could push a referendum or single-handedly change the constitution if the AKP were to win a two-thirds majority of parliamentary seats.

Erdogan wants to give the presidency, hitherto only a ceremonial head-of-state role, far-reaching powers under proposed changes to the constitution – a move that many experts have interpreted as a further step away from democracy.

The upcoming 25th general elections will be closely monitored as they could decide the ultimate fate of Turkey’s democracy. With a voting system in place that has already been attacked for its imbalances and injustices, it might be hard to imagine that things could get worse.

Source: DW.com

Erdogan can’t tell the deference between king & president “claims Saudi Arabia governed by presidential system”

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212352Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed while delivering a speech at a pro-government think tank on Monday that Saudi Arabia, governed by a monarchy and ruled by the King, in fact resembles a presidential system.

In defense of a presidential system of government, Erdoğan also claimed that the UK is not a parliamentary democracy but rather a country that is run by an executive president where the queen interferes in the government.

He criticized the election system in the UK, saying it is broke and describing it as unjust.

In January, Erdoğan also uttered similar claims alleging that “nearly all developed countries” are governed by presidential systems.

He spoke at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), a think tank that is close to and financed by the government, asking the SETA academics to do research on the benefits of a presidential system.

Although Erdoğan claimed that the presidential system is the main issue in the election campaign and has strong backing from voters, almost all the polls suggest otherwise. Erdoğan failed to gain traction on his bid to become an executive president as most people list economic woes as their number one concern in the elections.

The president said he is also opposed to a bicameral system if Turkey decides to switch to an executive presidency, saying that a Senate may hamper the work of Parliament as the House of Representatives in the American system often clashes with the Senate.