Greek City Times US State Department upgrades travel warning to Turkey due to “terrorism and arbitrary detentions” by Paul Antonopoulos The US State Department upgraded its warning on travel to Turkey on Wednesday. “Reconsider travel to Turkey due to COVID-19. Exercise increased caution when traveling to Turkey due to terrorism and arbitrary detentions. Some areas have increased risk. Read the entire Travel Advisory,” the State Department warned from their website. Although Turkey, like most countries, is on a Travel Advisory Level 3 due to COVID-19, there was a special warning for Sirnak and Hakari provinces. “Do not travel to: Sirnak province, Hakkari province, and any area within six miles (ten kilometers) of the Syrian border due to terrorism. (Level 4),” the State Department warned. Level 4 is the highest warning and is a “do not travel” demand. The State Department warns that terrorist attacks can occur anywhere and with no warning, including the specific targeting of tourist locations. “Terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Turkey. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, local government facilities, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, parks, major sporting and cultural events, educational institutions, airports, and other public areas,” the State Department warned, adding that “security forces have detained tens of thousands of individuals, including U.S. citizens, for alleged affiliations with terrorist organizations based on scant or secret evidence and grounds that appear to be politically motivated.” “U.S. citizens have also been subject to travel bans that prevent them from departing Turkey. Participation in demonstrations not explicitly approved by the Government of Turkey, as well as criticism of the government (including on social media) can result in arrest,” the statement continued. The State Department would then give Level 4 Warnings to Sirnak and Hakkari province, where a strong Kurdish resistance is being made against the Turkish military. “Do not travel to Sirnak province, Hakkari province, or any area within six miles (ten kilometers) of the Turkey/Syria border due to the continued threat of attacks by terrorist groups, armed conflict, and civil unrest. Terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings, ambushes, car bomb detonations, and improvised explosive devices, as well as shootings, and illegal roadblocks leading to violence have occurred in these areas. U.S. government employees are restricted from traveling to these provinces and to any area within six miles (ten kilometers) of the Turkey/Syria border without prior approval,” the State Department concluded.
Author: Arbi Tashjian
Turkish Professor: We must invade Greece as the Nazis invaded Poland
Greek City Times
Aug 28 2020
by PAUL ANTONOPOULOS
Dr. Ebubekir Sofuoğlu from Sakarya University has made an extremely curious comment that fully draws in how deep the Turkish-German alliance is by saying that Turkey should invade Greece the same way that Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939.
Turkish Media Ombudsman Faruk Bildirici wrote on his website that “hate speech and discrimination in [Turkish] media is rampant.”
On the “Derin Kutu” program on Akit TV on Tuesday, Sofuoğlu said Greece “do not have compulsory military service,” omitting that Greece in fact does have compulsory military service.
However, the professors next comments were the most shocking when he said “just as Hitler suddenly entered Poland, so we can easily enter Greece.”
The Turkish Ombudsman said on his website that “there was not the slightest objection from Sabri Balaman, who directed the program, to this person who said that Greece was full of metrosexuals, who discriminated and was sexist against women, humiliated Greek men, accused them of cowardice, and produced hate speech against the Greek nation. On the contrary, he smiled and the other participants did not object to these words.”
“Journalists who love their country and their people should not use such ‘hate speech’ in relation to another nation. Because this language full of insults is not enough to solve the problems between the two countries, on the contrary, it makes it more difficult. At most, it feeds prejudices and increases hostility between two neighboring nations. Tension, conflict, and above all war, damage both nations. Wars today have no winners,” Bildirici continued to write.
“Turkey, on the Aegean Sea and dissertation on what jurisdiction the Eastern Mediterranean, no matter how justified, difficult to use way to resolve the dispute and not to fight. No matter how the tension has escalated, it should be up to the journalists to make efforts to maintain friendship between the two countries and to resolve the problem through diplomatic means,” he added.
Turkey is one of the lowest ranked countries for media freedoms in the world, is the second most susceptible country surveyed on the European continent and its surrounds to fake news, has the most journalists jailed in the whole world, and 90% of media is government controlled.
Iranian-Armenian Christian Finally Released on Bail
Persecution.org
Aug 30 2020
08/30/2020 Iran (International Christian Concern) – An Iranian-Armenian Christian house church leader, Joseph Shahbazian, was finally released on a slightly reduced bail nearly two months after his detainment. The authorities had requested a bail amount of 3 billion tomans, the highest on record for an imprisoned Christian, but the family was only able to pay 2 billion tomans ($100,000). Since he is released only on bail, it is anticipated that the authorities will pursue charges against him.
Iranian Christians often face national security charges because of their faith practice. However, Armenian Christians are supposed to have some religious freedom “protections” because their families were Christians before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. These protections exist only in theory, and actually serve to isolate Armenian (Christians) from Persian (Islamic) society. Any kind of integration can be interpreted by the authorities as a national security issue.
Artsakh president got acquainted with the implementation of programs in Karvachar
Panorama, Armenia
Aug 29 2020
Artsakh Republic President Arayik Harutyunyan visited the town of Karvachar on Friday and got acquainted to the programs being carried out in the regional center.
As the Information department at the President's Offie reported, the president the activities of capital reconstruction of a 17,5 km long road from Vardenis-Martakert highway to the regional center, inquired about the schedule of the asphalting activities. The responsible officials of the contractor company "Dorozhnik" LLC assured the President that the activities will be launched in the first half of September. The project includes activities of fortifying the bridges at that part of the road as well as fully asphalting the central road of Karvachar.
Thereafter the President walked around the regional center, got acquainted to the activities of 15 apartment houses construction by means provided by the Armenian community of Australia, two dwelling districts with 48 apartments being built by state funding, a new building of the regional center hospital – by joint state and charitable funding, as well as works of paving and dismantling of old ruins.
The Head of the State considered important the programs being realized underlining that they have vital significance for Karvachar.
During the visit President Harutyunyan convoked a working consultation with heads of the region's communities. A range of important issues including those of drinking water, nighttime illumination as well as provision of building materials for reconstructing the apartment houses of the families in need were discussed.
Defense minister Tonoyan says situation in Armenian-Azerbaijani border is stable and predictable
16:55,
YEREVAN, AUGUST 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenian defense minister Davit Tonoyan assesses the situation in the Armenian-Azerbaijani border as stable and predictable.
“I will call it in this way – stable and predictable”, the minister told reporters today at the Parliament.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The tragedies driving Gladys: Extraordinary story of how the woman leading NSW through coronavirus lost 40 of her family in a genocide
The Daily Mail, UK
Aug 18 2020
- Gladys Berejiklian may seem a familiar presence with her daily COVID briefings
- But voters rarely hear about the tragedies her family had borne over the years
- Glimmers of the private NSW Premier's past have been dragged out of her
- Revealed some 40 of her relatives died in World War I's Armenian Genocide
- Family moved to Australia from the Middle East for a better life in Sydney
- In newspaper interview last year, Berejiklian revealed she was a 'lucky' twin
- Her sister was stillborn and she only learned of her existence later in life
Gladys Berejiklian's 'secret' twin sister died at birth and she hails from a family who fled a genocide where more than 40 of her relatives died, before her parents sought a better life in Australia.
The New South Wales Premier, 49, may seem like a familiar presence to most voters due to her coronavirus warnings broadcast daily throughout the state.
But the nation is now taking a good look at Berejiklian, who along with Victoria's Daniel Andrews, has played an outsize role leading the fight against the pandemic.
While Premier Berejiklian's work ethic, cautious instincts and her success (so far) in staving off a second coronavirus wave are well known, voters may be less familiar with the NSW leader's personal backstory.
Surprisingly for a politician, Berejiklian rarely speaks about herself, with details about her family's past dragged, begrudgingly, out of her over several years.
The two biggest insights into the Premier's personal life emerged in a 2018 speech where she was instructed to talk about herself, and in a lengthy newspaper interview prior to the last state election.
As the Ottoman Empire massacred its Armenian subjects during World War I, Berejiklian's grandparents fled the tiny, landlocked Caucasus nation for the Middle East.
'More than 40 of my relatives were among the 1.5 million Armenians massacred in what became the first genocide of the 20th century,' Berejiklian said in a landmark address to The Sydney Institute.
'All four of my grandparents were orphaned and witnessed untold atrocities.'
Her mother, Arsha, was born in Jerusalem, Israel, and her father, Krikor, in Aleppo, Syria – a city now known for a more recent humanitarian crisis.
Berejiklian's mother and father migrated, separately, to Sydney in the late 1960s, met and later married at an Armenian Orthodox church in Chatswood, in the city's north.
They worked as a nurse and a boiler-maker/welder – her father working on the Opera House during its construction – and settled in suburban North Ryde.
Gladys, the oldest of three sisters Rita and Mary, was born on September 22, 1970.
She spoke Armenian at home, attended public schools, was her high school captain and carried the burden of being the first-born to parents 'obsessed' with her attending university.
'I was extremely competitive and wanted good marks but from the talk of the kids I hung out with in our neighbourhood, I was doomed,' Berejiklian said in her speech.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, Berejiklian was the school captain of Peter Board High School
'Based on what the local kids told me, every kid who went to North Ryde High got bashed up and was forced to take drugs.
'This petrified me. I didn't even know what drugs were but I was pretty sure they were bad.'
But she went on to study at university and became the president of the state's Young Liberals.
In 1996, she wrote a letter to newly elected Prime Minister John Howard, demanding a meeting – and was shocked when he said 'yes, sure.'
She then worked as an executive for the Commonwealth Bank and was elected to the NSW Lower House for the seat of Willoughby in 2003, before becoming transport minister in the O'Farrell and Baird governments.
In that landmark speech, Berejiklian admitted that sharing her personal story was 'not something that comes easily to me'.
Indeed, news reports at the time said fellow party members saw her reluctance to share a bit of her personal life as a weakness.
'In public life, part of my M.O. has been to not stray from core business – after all, I have been elected to do a job, and to do it well,' she said.
But even then her remarks were quite reserved compared to the deeply personal admission she later made to a reporter.
Berejiklian, who is not married and is extremely close with her siblings, told The Weekend Australian magazine last year that there was something else that drives her – the loss of her twin sister.
'I'm very lucky… for me every day in life is a bonus,' Berejiklian was quoted saying. 'I had a twin sister and she didn't make it. It was just luck that I came out first.
'Imagine if you had a twin; you came out first, they didn't make it, I feel like I've got to justify my existence by sacrificing. So I don't care if I'm not happy all the time. I feel like I've got to work hard.'
Berejiklian said she only learned she had a twin when an acquaintance came over when she was a child and asked: 'Where's the other one?' A birth certificate describing her as the 'elder' of twins later confirmed the truth.
Arsha Berejiklian told The Weekend Australian that she didn't tell Gladys about her sister, as she didn't want to upset her.
As for the present, Berejiklian and her government continue to battle the coronavirus crisis with the Premier warning on Monday, as ever, that the state's residents should not fall into complacency and get tested if they have virus symptoms.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8634127/Gladys-Berejiklian-wrenching-personal-tragedies-New-South-Wales-Premier.html?ITO=applenews
Will government let guardians of children with limited abilities enter Armenian schools?
News.am, Armenia
Aug 21 2020
18:32, 21.08.2020
Culture: World Premier of the Ballet "Two Suns" on Mezzo TV
Panorama, Armenia
Aug 21 2020
Culture 17:48 21/08/2020
The ballet “Two Suns” is the first ever performing arts work to present Armenian art and cultural heritage on Mezzo TV, the international television channel with a worldwide community of 60 million subscribers, Deems Communications reports.
The premiere broadcast of Roudolf Kharatian’s “Two Suns” on Mezzo TV channel will take place on August 23, 2020, at 20:10 (CET). Following the premiere of “Two Suns” on August 23, broadcasts are already scheduled on August 29, September 9 and 15.
Broadcasting in more than 80 countries, Mezzo TV has become a leader in presenting the best of the performing arts to a discerning global audience since 1996. Ballet 2021 Development Foundation has signed a 5-year contract with Mezzo TV granting the channel broadcasting rights.
Fusing the past and the present, “Two Suns” presents Armenia’s impressive creative legacy through the prism of the 21st century becoming an innovative, timeless, Armenian and universal work of art that affirms Armenia’s relevance as an ongoing contributor to the humankind.
The broadcast of the ballet “Two Suns” to the millions of Mezzo TV international viewers is the first step to establishing Armenia on a world-class stage. This was part of Roudolf Kharatian’s mission when he took the position of the Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Armenia back in 2009 at the invitation by the Government of Armenia.
The ballet “Two Suns” is based on Grigor Narekatsi’s “The Book of Lamentations.” With libretto and choreography by Roudolf Kharatian, the musical score features 4th to 21st century compositions by Mesrop Mashtots, Grigor Narekatsi, Aram Khachaturian, Alan Hovhaness, Arno Babajanyan, Avet Terterian, and Ashot Ariyan. The sets and costumes were designed by Astghik Stepanyan.
For this project, Ballet 2021 has created an international ballet troupe with artists from Japan, France, Greece, Israel, and the United States, and guest principal dancers from Germany and the United States.
The “Two Suns” international ballet project was realized in 2015 by Ballet 2021 Foundation with the funding from the State Commission on the Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and the “Hirair and Anna Hovnanian Foundation.” The ballet premiered on May 27, 2015 at the National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Armenia.
MISSION
Ballet 2021 Development Foundation's mission is to support and promote the development of ballet in Armenia as a higher art form. Ballet 2021 was founded in 2012 by Roudolf Kharatian. The executive director is Lilit Petrosyan.
Developing distance education in Armenia
Emerging Europe
Aug 18 2020
View from Moscow: The MFA is the one who should voice Russia`s position on Armenia
Arminfo, Armenia
Aug 11 2020
ArmInfo. Russia's foreign policy is conducted and implemented through the relevant departments. In this light, I do not consider it appropriate to consider the critical statements of Margarita Simonyan as some kind of message from Moscow to Yerevan. Russian analyst Alexander Skakov expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
"We know that as the need arose, the Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly voiced rather remarkable statements regarding this or that step of Armenia. In such cases, Russia has always expressed its own position quite clearly. In general, regardless of the periodically arising problems, the Armenian-Russian relations are proceeding as usual. And I don't see any tragic events for Armenia or Russia, "he stressed.
Noting that the Caucasian direction at this stage is not included in the list of priorities of Russian diplomacy, Skakov conditioned such a situation by the natural course of events in this direction. At the same time, regardless of this official position, in Russia, according to his estimates, there are figures who have and express their dissenting opinion. The latter may or may not coincide with the position of the Kremlin, which is also quite normal and natural.
In this light, Skakov noted that representatives of the expert and analytical community also express their subjective opinion. He considers it important not to equate the opinions of experts with Russian official policy. The analyst, in this light, does not see any need for any reaction of the Russian authorities to certain statements of certain Russian figures.
"The existing level of Armenian-Russian relations is preserved today. And I personally do not see any threats to these relations. There are also problems between Yerevan and Moscow, and they receive an appropriate response at the appropriate level. It is also clear that some people have expectations that differ from the existing realities. And when these expectations are not met, they react quite sharply. I consider it natural to have a similar reaction, a reaction to such a reaction, and an official position. Problems are natural and they are solved – this is the main thing," Skakov summed up.