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Kurdistan prepared for unconditional talks with Iraq

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By Daniel Uria

Oct. 22 (UPI) — Kurdistan’s two major political parties have announced they are prepared to enter unconditional talks with Iraq to discuss the nation’s constitution.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party stated they will abandon the region’s quest for independence from Iraq, but are willing to open a dialogue with the nation’s government.

“We hereby declare to all parties that we are prepared to have unconditional dialogue on the basis of the constitution, away from imposing the policy of de facto, attacks or military arrogance,” the statement read. “Iraq needs to come to the discussion table on the basis of recognizing the rights of Kurdistan nation. To this end, the government of Kurdistan will represent Kurdistan’s nation.”

The two major parties met with 30 other parties in the Kurdistan Region after nearly 170,000 people have been displaced from the Kirkuk region by Iraqi forces following a referendum for Kurdistan’s independence.

A total of 93 percent of voters chose to leave Iraq, but Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called it an illegal vote and the United States said it “does not recognize” the referendum.

“We have always been wanting to have dialogue, but the Iraqi side has chosen a military logic,” Kurdistan’s government said.

Nawzad Hadi, the governor of the Kurdistan Region’s capital in Erbil, said the region expected more support and involvement from the United States in response to the military action as a result of their alliance to fight against the Islamic state.

“We expected real support from the U.S. for their loyal ally. Weapons used, with the support of the Peshmerga Forces, to defeat IS should not now be directed toward the people of the Kurdistan Region,” he said.

Saad al-Hadithi, an Iraqi government spokesman, presented a number of conditions for negotiations with Kurdistan on Saturday.

“Holding any talks with Baghdad will surely be on the basis of conditions, namely the integrity of Iraq, the constitution, handing over border ports, airports, the country’s wealth, Peshmerga forces, Kurdish security establishments, enforcing the law in disputed areas and preventing any move which might be taken by the Kurdistan Region contrary to the constitution,” he said.

PUK spokesman Saadi Pira said the conditions were “unacceptable” and that talks would not move forward with any conditions attached.

“We want the people of Kurdistan to be assured that we will defend in earnest the mandate that is given to the Kurdish leadership to reach the eventual objectives of the people of Kurdistan,” he said.

Source: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/10/22/Kurdistan-prepared-for-unconditional-talks-with-Iraq/6761508690619/

Armenia, Azerbaijan presidents’ talk slated for October 16 in Switzerland

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YEREVAN. – At the initiative of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group co-chair countries (Russia, US, and France), a meeting will be held between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan on October 16, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned the aforementioned from the Public and Media Relations Department of the Staff of the President of Armenia.

The last time when Presidents Serzh Sargsyan (Armenia) and Ilham Aliyev (Azerbaijan) met was about a year and a half ago in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Russian President Vladimir Putin also attended this talk.

Cyprus reunification talks collapse

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The latest round of talks to reunify the two Cypruses has collapsed, as the conflicting sides failed to narrow their differences and reach a compromise.

“The conference on Cyprus was closed without an agreement being reached,” United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres said after a stormy final session in the early hours of Friday.

Reunification talks between Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci to end the 40-year split were halted by Guterres, who had flown in from New York for the negotiations in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, after the sides started yelling and making violent gestures at each other, a source close to the negotiations said.

There are currently two Cypruses, the Turkish Cyprus and the Greek Cyprus, and the two are being ruled separately. Numerous rounds of talks and generations of diplomats have attempted but failed to resolve the matter, and Cyprus has earned the nickname “the diplomatic graveyard” as a result.

Guterres, however, did not close the door on any resolution of the matter.

“Unfortunately… an agreement was not possible, and the conference was closed without the possibility to bring a solution to this dramatic and long-lasting problem,” Guterres said, adding, however, “That doesn’t mean that other initiatives cannot be developed in order to address the Cyprus problem.” He did not explain.

The latest round of the reunification negotiations had begun in 2015. It was not clear if a new round would be arranged. Guterres’ press conference only lasted three and a half minutes.

Cyprus is also a former British colony, and the UK still retains its military bases and installations on the island. Back in 1974, Greek-allied forces staged a failed coup to annex the island, but Turkey responded militarily, and the territory has been partitioned ever since.

Anastasiades has said the withdrawal of the 30,000 Turkish troops currently deployed in Cyprus is a precondition for any agreement to reunify the Mediterranean island.

Offshore gas drilling has been a more recent bone of contention between the sides.

Turkey opposes a Greek Cypriot plan to launch a gas drill off the island in the coming weeks. The Turks pursue their own oil and gas development plans, which the Greeks are against.

“Tonight’s development is in no way positive,” said Nicos Christodoulides, a spokesman for the Greek Cypriot government, after the collapse of the talks. “But it is not the end of the road either.”

Greek Cyprus is a member of the European Union.

European parliament votes to suspend Turkey EU accession talks

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EU suspend Turkey TalkThe European Parliament has voted to ask for Turkey’s accession talks to the EU to be suspended. Meanwhile, police have detained a group of human rights activists, including Amnesty International’s Turkey director.

The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday voted for the suspension of membership talks with Turkey on Thursday.

The vote on the proposal passed by a wide margin, with support from the biggest party groups.

Proponents of the measure say Erdogan’s crackdown on opposition forces and the media mean Ankara cannot meet the bloc’s democratic criteria.

However, the parliament has little sway on the issue. The European Commission and EU member state governments have so far ignored calls for the process, already effectively in limbo, to be formally suspended.

Anticipating the vote, Turkey’s EU affairs minister warned it would be a “terrible mistake,” adding that European lawmakers should show solidarity with Turkey after last year’s failed coup attempt.

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftugolu separately said the decision was based on false claims and allegations.

Arrests at island meeting

Meanwhile, Amnesty International demanded the release of a group of human rights activists – including its country director – on Thursday, citing their detentions as a “grotesque abuse of power.”

Amnesty’s Turkey Director Idil Eser and others were taken to a police station on Wednesday evening after they gathered at a hotel on the island of Buyukada, just south of Istanbul.

Turkish newspaper Hurriyet said 12 people had been arrested. It was unclear why they were being held, with police saying they would make an announcement later on Thursday.

The detentions follow thejailing of the chairman of Amnesty’s branch in Turkey, Taner Kilic, on charges that he was a member of a terrorist organization.

Amnesty: Human rights ‘meltdown’

Amnesty demanded the group’s release, saying it was “profoundly disturbed and outraged” at the detentions, as the group met on the island to discuss strategies for digital security and information management.

“Idil Eser and those detained with her, must be immediately and unconditionally released,” said Amnesty’s International’s Secretary General, Salil Shetty.

“Her incommunicado detention and that of the other human rights defenders attending a routine training event, is a grotesque abuse of power and highlights the precarious situation facing human rights activists in the country. ”

Amnesty urged world leaders meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg to address Turkey’s human rights “meltdown” with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Among those detained with Eser were seven human rights activists and two foreign trainers, one from Germany and one Swedish.

rc/ng (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

Armenia, EU to launch Common Aviation Area talks in late April

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Negotiations on Armenia’s accession to the European Common Aviation Area will launch in late April, minister of transport, communication and information technologies Vahan Martirosyan has said.

The Armenian minister was meeting European Commissioner for Mobility and Transport Violeta Bulc in Sofia, Bulgaria.

According to a ministry statement, Bulc gave a positive assessment to the start of negotiations and confirmed that the agreement will soon be signed.

Also in the spotlight of the meeting were issues related to the digitization in the transport sector and road safety challenges.

In this context, Martirosyan proposed holding a regional transport communications conference in Yerevan and invited Bulc to visit Armenia.

The European Common Aviation Area is defined by bilateral agreements between European countries about a single market in aviation services.

Sarkisian Sees No ‘Serious’ Talks With Azerbaijan

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Armenia and Azerbaijan have held no “serious” peace talks since August, President Serzh Sarkisian said on Sunday after inspecting Armenian military bases and frontline positions in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The last serious conversation on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue took place on August 10. There have been no serious conversations on the issue since then,” he told a group of Armenian artists and intellectuals in Stepanakert.

Sarkisian appeared to refer to his August 10 meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It came nearly two months after Putin hosted an Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Saint Petersburg.

In a joint statement with Putin issued in the Russian city, Sarkisian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev hinted at progress towards a compromise solution to the Karabakh conflict. It was expected that the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders will meet again soon and try to build on the apparent progress. However, they have still not scheduled follow-up talks despite repeated appeals from international mediators.

As recently as last Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the Russian and French foreign ministers urged Sarkisian and Aliyev to “demonstrate flexibility and to return to the negotiation table.” “Unless progress can be made on negotiations, the prospects for renewed violence will only increase, and the parties will bear full responsibility,” they warned in a joint statement issued in Hamburg.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers met in the German city later on December 8. They announced no concrete agreements afterwards.

Sarkisian spoke in Stepanakert at the end of a three-day trip to Karabakh during which he met with the Karabakh Armenian army’s top brass, inspected several military bases and visited some sections of “the line of contact” around the territory. According to his press office, Sarkisian familiarized himself with new defense fortifications that have been built there after heavy fighting with Azerbaijani troops in early April.

Commenting on the timing of the trip, the Armenian president said Karabakh’s population and armed forces “should be prepared to go through a difficult period.” “The army has many needs and those needs have to be assessed because our resources are not unlimited and all issues cannot be solved at once,” he said. “That is why we need to assess the needs, see which of them are primary and solve those issues.”

U.S. to Begin Military Talks With Russia on Syria

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Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in London on Friday. Credit Pool photo by Evan Vucci

Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in London on Friday. Credit Pool photo by Evan Vucci

By MICHAEL R. GORDONSEPT.

LONDON — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that the United States was prepared to engage in military-to-military talks with Russia concerning Syria.  report nytimes

“The president believes that a military-to-military conversation is an important next step,” Mr. Kerry said, “and I think, hopefully, it will take place very shortly.”

The initial purpose of the talks with Russia, Mr. Kerry said, will be to help “define some of the different options that are available to us as we consider next steps in Syria.”

Mr. Kerry said that the Obama administration would not change its basic goals in Syria: The defeat the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and a political solution for the conflict there.

But though the administration has long said that President Bashar al-Assad must go for there to be a durable solution to the Syria crisis, Mr. Kerry seemed on Friday to allow for the possibility that Mr. Assad might remain in power in the short term. Mr. Assad has had Russia’s backing throughout the conflict.

Sweden and Ecuador to begin Julian Assange talks next week

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Julian Assange in August 2014. Photograph: Reuters

Julian Assange in August 2014. Photograph: Reuters

Sweden will begin talks with Ecuador about Julian Assange on Monday, after Stockholm moved to break the deadlock over five-year-old rape allegations against him.

Sweden initially rejected a demand by Ecuador that the two countries establish a formal agreement on judicial cooperation before Swedish prosecutors could interrogate the WikiLeaks founder in Ecuador’s embassy in London, saying it did not negotiate bilateral treaties.

But this month the government agreed to talks specifically to address the stalemate over Assange, who claimed asylum in the embassy in 2012.

Two women made allegations against Assange five years ago in Stockholm, but no charges were brought because the prosecutor said she was unable to interrogate him. Assange says he had no choice but to seek asylum as Sweden declined to guarantee that he would not be extradited to the US to face espionage charges if he travelled to Stockholm.

The political intervention by Sweden marks a new development in the case. Swedish politicians have, with very few exceptions, insisted they must not interfere, saying it is a purely judicial matter.

“We have agreed to what the Ecuadorians asked for,” said Cecilia Riddselius, the Swedish justice ministry official responsible for the case. “It was a political decision to have this discussion.

“Normally ministers cannot interfere in individual cases, it is part of our legal system, this is a strict rule. At the same time, it is under the competence of the government to enter into agreements with other states. A decision was taken to actually raise it to the level of the cabinet.”

Riddselius said the state secretary, Anne Linde, would open the negotiations on Monday on behalf of the justice ministry. The justice ministry’s director general for international affairs, Anna-Karin Svensson, the foreign ministry’s director general for legal affairs, Anders Rönquist, and Riddselius herself would also be involved. She said Ecuador’s under-secretary of state Férnando Yepez Lasso would lead the talks for Ecuador.

Ecuador’s embassy in Stockholm declined to comment, but said the makeup of its delegation was still being discussed.

“We do not normally enter into bilateral agreements and encourage states to enter multilateral ones instead,” Riddselius said. “But considering this specific case and our willingness to move the case forward, we are open to discuss this. It will be a general agreement but we hope it will be applicable to the Assange case.”

Sexual assault accusations against Assange, who has not been formally charged with any crime, expired this month under Sweden’s statute of limitations. In March Swedish prosecutors had pledged to interrogate Assange in London while the allegations were still current.

Assange condemned the “incompetence” of Swedish authorities in failing to meet this deadline after he consistently demanded that prosecutors interview him in London so he could protest his innocence. The outstanding rape allegation can be prosecuted until August 2020.

The UK accuses Ecuador of preventing the proper course of justice by granting Assange asylum in London and is frustrated at the mounting costs of policing the embassy.

As recently as July, Sweden turned down a request from the UN to consider a guarantee that political refugees wanted for questioning would not face extradition to a third country.

Riddselius said that in her 20 years at the justice ministry she had never encountered a bilateral agreement of the kind that would be negotiated on Monday. “It is new ground, very unusual, it is something we try to avoid,” she said.

The negotiations would be complex, she said, and it was impossible to say how long they might take. She said Sweden had drafted an agreement and respected Ecuador’s need to examine it thoroughly and propose changes.

Source: The Guardian

Lavrov: It’s time to intensify talks on Karabakh

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Talk-KarabakhIt’s time to intensify talks on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov.

The Russian Minister added that given the general mood and result-oriented approach “we can ensure this progress”, RIA Novosti reported.

Minister Mammadyarov noted that the finalized long talks on Iranian nuclear issue give hope that the Karabakh conflict can be settled.

“The settlement takes the track for an early breakthrough,” Azerbaijani Minister said.

Armenia President holds talks in China

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10130_bbPresident of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, who is on a state visit to China, on Wednesday met with President Xi Jinping.

At the end of the meeting, and as a result of the talks, the two presidents signed a joint declaration on further development and deepening of Armenia-China friendly relations of cooperation.

The parties also signed more than a dozen documents with respect to the development and strengthening of bilateral cooperation between the two countries in several domains.

Prior to his talk with Xi Jinping, however, President Sargsyan was hosted by the Beijing No.2 High School. This learning institution is considered one of the largest and technically best-equipped schools in the Chinese capital city, and it also engaged in international cooperation projects, including student exchange programs with a number of countries.

The Armenian President toured the learning facility and, subsequently, signed the school guestbook.

“I am confident that our two peoples, which have a millennia-old history, will develop and strengthen their ties and cooperation in a climate of friendship and peace,” Serzh Sargsyan specifically wrote in the guestbook.