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Turkey supports Assad toppling to increase regional influence – expert

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September 12, 2012 – 16:35 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net –  From the very onset, Turkey supported toppling of Syria’s Assad regime as a means of boosting its regional influence, a Turkologist believes.

As Hakob Chakryan told a September 12 news conference, “With Turkey having a hand in toppling of Assad, as pro-Turkish forces become included in the new government, Ankara’s regional influence is sure to soar.”

Arab studies expert Hayk Kocharyan, in turn, shared his views on reaching a settlement in Syria crisis.

“First solution would be a Libyan scenario, with a protracted war. The second one is a Somalia scenario, where the country is divided between a number of armed groups, with anarchy reigning.

However, Syria’s system of values makes the 1st scenario unlikely,” the expert said.

Commenting on Turkey’s remarks, suggesting Ankara’s readiness to welcome Syrian Armenians, the expert noted, “Turkey is interested in the collapse of Armenian communities as inheritors of Genocide legacy.”

“I’m confident, however, that Syrian Armenians would never agree to live in Turkey,” he concluded

Mass trial of 36 Kurdish lawyers in Turkey: Report and London public meeting

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By Peace in Kurdistan Campaign:

On 16 – 19 July 2012, thirty-six Kurdish lawyers, representatives of imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, were tried at Istanbul High Criminal Court. They were arrested in November 2011 and charged under the Anti-Terror Act of ‘being a member of an illegal organisation’ and ‘passing orders of Abdullah Ocalan’.  Margaret Owen OBE, barrister, human rights lawyer and patron of Peace in Kurdistan campaign travelled to Istanbul with other international colleagues to observe the mass trial. She has written a report on her observations, entitled ‘Mass trial of 36 Kurdish lawyers in Turkey: Report on the trial of the 36 lawyers at the Istanbul High Criminal Court, 16 – 19 July 2012′.

You can view the report online here: http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/lawyers-on-trial-report-on-the-kck-hearings/

The report is a damning indictment of a flawed, highly politicised and prejudiced judicial system. Moreover, this trial is only one of dozens that have been taking place in Turkey since 2009 as a result of the so-called ‘KCK operations’, a result of which over 8,000 people have been arrested for alleged membership to the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK).

The KCK trials, as they have become known, have involved the prosecution of hundreds of members of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), local councillors and elected officials, media workers, human rights activists, prominent writers, publishers, and academics, and trade unionists. The next major hearings take place on 10 – 14 September, when 35 journalists will face charges of terrorism. Collectively, these trials represent the Turkish government’ efforts to criminalise any attempt to speak out for Kurdish rights and to dismantle the Kurdish liberation movement as a whole.

“Hungary’s government aided a murderer to freedom,” said head of the main opposition socialist MSZP party, Attila Mesterhazy.

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“We wouldn’t even dare consider the prospect that the Hungary extradited Ramil Safarov…in return for Azerbaijan’s investments,” representatives of the green opposition LMP party said citing reports form last week that the government is planning to issue 2 billion to 3 billion euros ($2.5 billion to $3.7 billion) in debt to Azerbaijan. The government is scheduled to issue altogether 4 billion euros this year.

Besides the diplomatic backlash for Hungary, the incident has also invigorated the tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. President Sargsyan said that Azerbaijan “has been warned” and that while Yerevan doesn’t war, it definitely won’t back away from one.