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Armenia should not have joined UN vote on Jerusalem’s status – analyst

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Armenia should not have taken part in the United Nations’ voting over the resolution warning against any diplomatic efforts to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the director on the analytical center on Globalisation and Regional Cooperation said today, commenting on the country’s political stance on the document.

Speaking to Tert.am, Stepan Grigoryan addressed also the Foreign Ministry’s statement which he said was absolutely adequate and neutrally-worded.

Asked whether US President Donald Trump’s landmark statement made earlier this month may impact the US entry visa policies and different funding projects in Armenia, the analyst said he doesn’t expect any serious developments. “I don’t think it will impact the visa issuance procedures, but if Trump is as good as his word, we may certainly become vulnerable a little bit. It is an open secret that EU and the United States [are the only superpowers] offering assistance to Armenia. We must be honest enough to admit that,” he added.

Grigoryan noted that the US assistance to Armenia is not limited only to financial resources as they provides also considerable technical supplies to the country to promote technological development.

“I am hopeful we are not going into those big games; so they [the US] may not focus too much attention on us,” he added.

Meantime the expert considered the United States’ reaction absolutely justified, noting that the country largely responsible for generating the UN funds for most different projects.

Crook Claims Rudy Giuliani and Michael Mukasey Tried to Broker U.S.-Turkey Prisoner Swap

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Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab flipped for the feds and told a court that President Trump’s pals tried to get him out of an American jail.

KATIE ZAVADSKI  11.29.17 1:02 PM ET

Rudy Giuliani and Michael Mukasey tried to broker a prisoner exchange between the United States and Turkey to free their Turkish client, Reza Zarrab, he testified in Manhattan federal court Wednesday.

Zarrab said on the stand he hired lawyers to attempt to negotiate a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Turkey “within the legal limits,” but that they were unsuccessful. He did not name the attorneys, but Giuliani and Mukasey were previously identified as the lawyers working to strike a diplomatic deal for Zarrab.

Zarrab, a Turkish gold trader, was the architect and main facilitator of a cash-for-gold scheme to help Turkey buy Iranian oil and evade sanctions.

Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, is a long-time friend of Trump who was considered for several Cabinet posts. Mukasey was attorney general under President George W. Bush.

Giuliani and Mukasey avoided mentioning the “central role” of Iran in the charges against Zarrab on filings submitted to the court about their work and said the case had no serious implications for U.S. national security. Judge Richard Berman slammed the omissions as “disingenuous” earlier this year. (Giuliani previously called Iranians “suicidal homicidal maniacs.”)

It is not known who the American in Turkish custody was, but Ankara has been cracking down on Americans since an attempted coup in 2016.

In one instance, an American journalist arrested at the Turkish-Syrian border was told by a judge that it was “all your government’s fault.” Other American citizens, and Turkish nationals working for American embassies, have been arrested and accused of links to Gulen and his followers. They include an American pastor and a NASA physicist with dual citizenship.

Prosecutors on Tuesday revealed that Zarrab flipped and was cooperating with authorities in the case against co-defendant Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a former state bank deputy general manager, who is also charged with evading sanctions.

On Wednesday, Zarrab also admitted to bribing a former Turkish minister of the economy with more than €45 million so he could trade gold with Iran in spite of sanctions.

“He asked about the profit margins, and he said, I can broker this providing there’s a profit share, 50-50,” Zarrab testified through a translator.

Zafer Caglayan, the former economy minister, was charged in the case in September.

Zarrab’s testimony over as many as three days in the trial is expected to shed light on the far-reaching sanction dodge scheme, and may even implicate high-ranking Turkish officials.

The allegations have roots in Turkey’s 2013 corruption scandal, which alleged that top Turkish ministers took bribes to sign off on the scheme. The possibility of domestic scandal has also led Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was the prime minister in 2013, to attempt to cajole the US government into releasing Zarrab without trial.

Zarrab’s plea, in which he admitted to seven different charges, also raised questions about whether he may be cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump administration.

As reported earlier this month, Zarrab’s release was allegedly one of the requests floated to former national security advisor Michael Flynn in a December 2016 meeting with Turkish representatives. Mueller is reportedly investigating their $15 million offer to Flynn in exchange for freeing Zarrab and kidnapping exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/strong-evidence-that-us-special-operations-forces-massacred-civilians-in-somalia

United States strongly opposes the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government’s referendum

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Press Statement

Heather Nauert, Department Spokesperson Washington, DC
September 20, 2017

The United States strongly opposes the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government’s referendum on independence, planned for September 25. All of Iraq’s neighbors, and virtually the entire international community, also oppose this referendum. The United States urges Iraqi Kurdish leaders to accept the alternative, which is a serious and sustained dialogue with the central government, facilitated by the United States and United Nations, and other partners, on all matters of concern, including the future of the Baghdad-Erbil relationship.

If this referendum is conducted, it is highly unlikely that there will be negotiations with Baghdad, and the above international offer of support for negotiations will be foreclosed.

The costs of proceeding with the referendum are high for all Iraqis, including Kurds. Already the referendum has negatively affected Defeat-ISIS coordination to dislodge ISIS from its remaining areas of control in Iraq. The decision to hold the referendum in disputed areas is especially de-stabilizing, raising tensions which ISIS and other extremist groups are now seeking to exploit. The status of disputed areas and their boundaries must be resolved through dialogue, in accordance with Iraq’s constitution, not by unilateral action or force.

Finally, the referendum may jeopardize Iraqi Kurdistan’s regional trade relations, and international assistance of all kinds, even though none of Iraq’s partners wish this to be the case. This is simply the reality of this very serious situation. In contrast, genuine dialogue, the alternative, which we urge Kurdish leaders to embrace, holds the promise of resolving a great many of Iraqi Kurds’ legitimate grievances, and establishing a new and constructive course for Baghdad-Erbil relations that benefit all the people of Iraq.

The Kurds can be proud already of what the referendum process has produced, including more Kurdish unity, reviving the Kurdish parliament for the first time in nearly two years, and placing important issues on the international stage, with partners and friends prepared to build on the spirit of cooperation seen between Iraqi Security Forces and Kurdish Peshmerga in the campaign against ISIS to help resolve outstanding issues. ‎Unfortunately, the referendum next week will jeopardize all of this momentum and more.

The referendum itself is now all the more unnecessary given the alternative path that has been prepared and endorsed by the United States and the international community.

Turkey, US accuse each other of terror sponsorship in Syria

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Turkey and the United States have been accusing each other of supporting various terrorist groups in Syria.

Brett H. McGurk, the US special envoy to the international coalition against the Daesh terrorist group, has suggested that Turkey facilitates al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria’s Idlib Province.

He said in a speech delivered at a Washington-based think tank on July 29 that Idlib has turned into a “safe zone for al-Qaeda terrorists on the Turkish border,” asking “why and how” a deputy to al-Qaeda’s leader had allegedly managed to travel to the Syrian province.

He said it might not be the best approach for some partners of the US “to send tens of thousands of weapons and turn their faces to the other side as foreign fighters enter this area,” according to reports.

The US, McGurk reportedly said, intended to work with Turkey to have the border closed to recruited militants.

Ankara has strongly denounced McGurk’s “provocative” remarks, accusing Washington of terror sponsorship in Syria by supporting the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant group that has been fighting the central Turkish government since 1984.

“Our reaction to the statements of Brett McGurk, in which he associated Turkey with the presence of terrorist organizations in Idlib, was brought to Mr. McGurk’s attention at a high-level démarche, and his statements, which could be characterized as provocative, were protested,” Turkish media on Monday quoted Foreign Ministry spokesperson Huseyin Muftuoglu as saying.

Muftuoglu also said that the US had to end its support for the Kurdish Democratic Party, aka PYD.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry official, who asked not to be named, also told Hurriyet Daily News that Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Sedat Onal had urged the US envoy to “correct” his statements.

The official added that Onal warned that such remarks could harm mutual cooperation between Turkey and the US, which is seeking cooperation with Ankara for the post-Daesh period in Syria.

Syria has been gripped by militancy since March 2011, when a section of the opposition in the country took up arms against President Bashar al-Assad. A vast mix of foreign terrorists soon blended with the armed opposition, joining the fight against the Syrian government.

Source: presstv.com

US sanctions against Russia ‘in Armenia’s interests’ – analyst

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The United States’ move to enforce fresh sanctions against Russia gives absolutely no ground for concern, especially to Armenia, according a Yerevan-based political analyst.
Speaking to Tert.am, Levon Shirinyan described the Trump administration’s recent decision as an attempt to ‘constrain Russia’s appetite’.
“Russia’s expansionist appetite is really big, as they want to seize Donbass, Ukraine and Armenia,” he said, blaming the country also for provoking repeated hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“With those sanctions now, the United States are making attempts to moderate that appetite,” Shirinyan added.

The expert said he also sees Russian attempts to establish dominance over Armenia through soft power. “While they now propose giving Russian a state language status, sometime in the future, they may urge us to change also our religion. That’s a Russian style of acting, a way of seizing [Armenia],” he noted.

Shirinyan attributed the country’s somewhat uneasy conduct to inability to maintain the one-time strong influence over the South Caucasus region. He also criticized Russia’s return move to reduce its diplomatic staff in the country as an absolutely non-adequate reaction.

“Russia will have to moderate [its ambitions]. They have no other choice. Nothing is developing in Russia – neither economy, nor agriculture and nor even science. Whatever they have created so far was due to the technologies [imported] from the West. So they are now blocking that way,” he added.

U.S. Marine Corps confirms 16 service members killed in military plane crash

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military plane crashSixteen service members were killed after a U.S. military transport plane crashed in rural Mississippi on Monday evening, the U.S Marine Corps said on Tuesday.

In a statement, the Marine Corps said the KC-130 Hercules transport aircraft took off from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina and the aircraft disappeared from air traffic control radar over Mississippi.

The aircraft crashed on Monday at approximately 4 p.m. CDT (5 p.m. EST) in northern Mississippi’s LeFlore County, about 100 miles (160 km) north of Jackson, the state capital.

The cause of the crash was not yet known and under investigation, the statement added. The identities of the service members who were killed were being withheld until family members were notified.

Images posted online by news organizations showed the crumpled wreckage of a plane engulfed in flames in a field surrounded by tall vegetation, with a large plume of smoke in the sky above.

The aircraft is used for air-to-air refueling, to carry cargo and perform tactical passenger missions. The plane is operated by three crew members and can carry 92 ground troops or 64 paratroopers, according to a description on the U.S. Navy website.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington D.C. and Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mississippi-crash-idUSKBN19W095

 

Turkey continues to muddy the Middle East, Does the US have answer for Turkish threats against Syrian Kurds?

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Source:

A Turkish army tank drives toward Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, Aug. 25, 2016. (photo by REUTERS/Umit Bektas) Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/us-answer-turkey-threats-syria-kurds-hamas-iran-hezbollah.html#ixzz4lm8RIukX

A Turkish army tank drives toward Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, Aug. 25, 2016. (photo by REUTERS/Umit Bektas)
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/us-answer-turkey-threats-syria-kurds-hamas-iran-hezbollah.html#ixzz4lm8RIukX

“Though pointing to Idlib as the next destination,” Fehim Tastekin reports, “Turkey’s field operations signal double objectives. First, Turkey wants its own troops in the de-conflicting, or ‘safe,’ zones determined during peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan. Second and more important to Turkey is to take advantage of the competition between rival coalitions west of the Euphrates. With the United States and Kurds on one side and Russia, Iran and the Syrian army on the other, Turkey hopes to break up the corridor carved out by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Ankara considers this stretch of land a threat to Turkey’s national security.”

“According to information leaked to the news media by official Ankara sources,” Tastekin continues, “TSK [Turkish military] forces will cross into Syria from three locations and establish control over an area 35 by 85 kilometers (21 by 52 miles). This corridor would start at Daret Izza and extend to Obin and Khirbet al-Joz. Another area of land, starting from Turkey’s Hatay border and extending 35 kilometers to Sahl al-Ghab, would also be controlled by the TSK. In this security configuration around Idlib, Turkey’s Free Syrian Army (FSA) allies would also have a role. So far, as many as 2,000 FSA soldiers have been put on alert.”

Tastekin reports, “Kurds insist that the Syrian army is cooperating with Turkey in this operation, at Russia’s behest. But there are no real indications of Russians and the Syrian army wanting to suppress the Kurds. To the contrary, the feeling in Damascus is that Russia and Syria would prefer to keep the Kurds as their ally.”

The US State Department, at least publicly, does not have an answer as to whether Turkey’s moves might complicate its overall Syria strategy. Asked by a reporter June 29 whether the United States was concerned about Turkish threats and attacks on the Syrian Democratic Forces (or SDF, which is made up primarily of YPG fighters), State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert replied, “The reason that the United States is involved in Syria is to take out [IS]. That’s why we care and that’s why we are there. Our focus is on liberating Raqqa right now. Our forces aren’t operating in the area that you’re talking about. I don’t want to get into [Department of Defense] territory. That is theirs. But our focus is on another part of Syria right now.”

That same day, pressed by a reporter as to whether the United States would defend the SDF against Turkey, Col. Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said, “We’re not going to get there. I don’t want to speculate on that. We will continue to support our SDF partners in the fight against [IS] in Raqqa and perhaps elsewhere after that.”

And this brings us to Idlib. Tastekin writes: “According to official comments from Ankara, an operation is in progress to add Idlib to the area Turkey controls. Currently, Idlib is divided between Ahrar al-Sham and Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham. Though both Salafi militant groups seek the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, they are rivals. Turkey’s presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin talked of a plan calling for Russian and Turkish deployment at Idlib, Russian and Iranian troops around Damascus, and American and Jordanians at Daraa in the south.”

Idlib is, simply put, a time bomb for those who may hope that defeating IS in Raqqa might be the beginning of the end of the counterterrorism campaign in Syria. This column said in March: “While the United States is consumed with planning for unseating IS in Raqqa, Idlib may prove a comparable or perhaps even more explosive fault line because of the blurred lines among anti-Western Salafi groups such as Ahrar al-Sham, which is backed by Turkey, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.” The latter group is comprised of current and former al-Qaeda and affiliated forces. Ahrar al-Sham’s on-again, off-again ties with al-Qaeda make it, in our view, a fellow traveler, not an alternative, even if the two groups are presently at odds.

Do Turkey’s plans for Idlib include cleaning house on these groups? If not, we can expect Idlib to remain a safe haven for Salafi and terrorist forces seeking to keep up the fight against the Syrian government, while the citizens of Idlib continue to suffer under the brutal and arbitrary rule of these armed gangs.

In a related story, Metin Gurcan reports that Turkey is looking to crack down on “foreign fighters,” including Americans, who have taken up arms with the YPG. Gurcan writes: “There are plenty of allegations, but as of today the media has no evidence that foreign fighters in the YPG are fighting against Turkish security forces in Turkey or Syria. However, the capture of just one YPG foreign fighter in Turkey or one fighting Turkish forces in Syria could rapidly worsen legal and diplomatic relations between Turkey and the Western allies to dangerous levels — especially if that foreign fighter turns out to be a citizen of a NATO country.”

Hamas moves closer to Iran

Adnan Abu Amer writes that the blockade of Qatar led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates continues to push Hamas toward Iran, as Al-Monitor has reported.

On June 14, Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, met with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. “It is no secret that Hamas, despite having different positions regarding the Syrian crisis, needs Hezbollah when it comes to funding, training, securing supply lines for weapons and providing residence for Hamas cadres in Lebanon,” Abu Amer writes. “For its part, Hezbollah needs a Palestinian movement, such as Hamas, to restore its popularity among Arab public opinion, which it lost after being involved in the wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen against Sunni Muslims. Hamas, as a Sunni Islamic movement getting closer to the Shiite Hezbollah, may help dispel Hezbollah’s sectarian image. The new rapprochement between Hamas and Hezbollah may contribute to the return of armament and training cooperation programs, with the support of Iran.”

Abu Amer concludes: “Hamas realizes that the margin of political maneuvering has been narrowed by the polarization of the two rival axes: Qatar and its allies against Saudi Arabia and its partners. However, in the absence of other options, the movement seems compelled to resort to Iran and its allies in the region, namely Hezbollah, to survive. Even if it is faced with a new wave of criticism, Hamas would still be turning toward Hezbollah.”

Source: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/us-answer-turkey-threats-syria-kurds-hamas-iran-hezbollah.html?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=manual&utm_campaign=20170702&bt_ee=W1bAOXpkqqi56LAUy/ZcTt51CYXKyNoQEOQm8oTF2CIMmWLIRJvQ9Tle5DQMC2Zk&bt_ts=1499070744397

Rep. Deutch: The U.S. should apply lessons from the Armenian Genocide

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Armenian GenocideCongressman Ted Deutch (FL-22), a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, issued this statement after cosponsoring House Resolution 220 which recognizes the importance of drawing lessons from past genocides, like the Armenian Genocide, in order to prevent future atrocities:

“Over 100 years after the Armenian Genocide, it is our responsibility to continue to learn from this dark moment in history which caused unimaginable devastation and irreparable pain to the Armenian people. As we’ve learned from survivors of the Holocaust, keeping alive the memory of those lost and retelling the story of this genocide is essential in working to prevent history from repeating itself. Unfortunately, the recent genocide against the Yazidis by ISIS reminds us that we still have far to go.”

Samuel Sevian declared U.S. Chess Champion

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The 16-year-old Armenian chess player Samuel Sevian was declared U.S. Chess Champion, Asbarez reported, adding that apart from winning the first prize, Sevian was qualified for the 2017 World Cup to be held in Tbilisi.

The other Armenian participant of the tournament Grigor Sevak Mkhitaryan took the 35th place, the source added.

Breaking News: US-Led Coalition Shoots Down Syrian Army Aircraft – Reports

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U.S. jet shutdown Syrian JetUS-led anti-terrorist coalition has reportedly shot down a Syrian government forces’ aircraft.

Syrian Arab Army announced that the US-led anti-terrorist coalition had brought down its aircraft in southern Raqqa countryside, Syrian media reported citing a statement by the Syrian Defence Ministry.

According to the report, the Syrian jet fighter was carrying out military tasks fighting Daesh terrorist organization.

“Our aircraft was downed at lunch time today near the [Syrian] city of Raqqa, when it was fulfilling its mission against the IS,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that the US-led coalition was responsible for downing the aircraft.

The ministry noted that the coalition’s “actions are aimed at halting the Syrian army and its allies in the fight against terrorism, whereas our army and allies make great progress.”

According to the ministry, the pilot of the aircraft has not been found to date.

This is not the first time the US-led coalition’s activities in Raqqa cause casualties. Syrian media reported earlier that at least 43 civilians were killed as a result of the US-led coalition airstrike in the region. The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the airstrikes and sent two letters the UN secretary general and the head of the UN Security Council, in which the coalition’s actions were compared to Daesh crimes. Just a few days later, the Lebanese media reported that the coalition’s airstrikes killed more than 30 civilians more near Raqqa.

Raqqa has been under the control of Daesh since 2013, and is the de-facto capital of the self-proclaimed Daesh caliphate. The operation to retake Raqqa, conducted by a coalition consisting of almost 70 countries, has been on-going since November 2016. The strikes in Syria are not authorized by the UN Security Council or the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.