Author: Bedik Zaminian

Chess: European Championship to host 19 Armenian chess players

Bedik Zaminian
PanArmenian, Armenia
– 13:50 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – 19 Armenian chess players will participate in the European Individual Chess Championship 2017 due May 29-June 10 in Minsk, Belarus.

The championship is played in 11-round Swiss system, with the time control 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.

The European Individual Championship 2017 is a qualification event for the next World Cup. According to FIDE regulations and the decision of the ECU Board, 22 players will qualify.

The Armenian squad is headed by GMs Sergei Movsesian, Gabriel Sargissian, Hrant Melkumyan, Zaven Andriasian and Arman Pashikian.

The first round of the championship will kick off May 30, Armenia’s National Olympic Committee reports.

Soccer: Mkhitaryan makes United history

Bedik Zaminian
Public Radio of Armenia


10:09,

Henrikh Mkhitaryan made history for Manchester United with his UEFA Europa League final goal against Ajax, according to the cub’s official website. 

The second strike of United’s 2-0 win in Stockholm, expertly hooked home by the Armenian from Chris Smalling’s downward header following a corner, made him the only man ever to score in five different European games on the road for the Reds in a single campaign.

He had previously found the net in four away fixtures, against Zorya Luhansk, Saint-Etienne, Rostov and Anderlecht, in addition to also scoring in the home leg against Anderlecht.

David Herd was on target in four away games in United’s 1964/65 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup run, with Dwight Yorke (1998/1999) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (2002/03) matching that particular feat. Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, like Mkhitaryan, scored in finals to also take their tallies to four.

ANKARA: German lawmakers cancel visit after Ankara refuses meetings

Bedik Zaminian
Hurriyet, Turkey
German lawmakers cancel visit after Ankara refuses meetings

ANKARA-BERLIN

AP photo

A deputy speaker of Germany’s parliament stated on May 24 that a parliamentary delegation had scrapped long-standing plans to visit Turkey, after finding out at the last minute that it would not be able to hold talks with officials or visit the Turkish Parliament building.

Claudia Roth, a Green Party lawmaker and vice president of the Bundestag (German lower house), said Turkish officials had informed her that the German delegation would not have access to parliament in Ankara or security guards.

“It was thought that the visit was not an appropriate at this time, so we declined their requests for the meetings,” a Turkish official told the Hürriyet Daily News on condition of anonymity. 

The cancellation of the visit comes amid strained relations between the two NATO allies that have deteriorated over Turkey’s refusal to allow German parliamentarians access to troops based at the İncirlik air base. Germany, in response, warned that it could move its troops elsewhere, with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel accusing Turkey of “blackmail.”

“Yesterday we received the information that the highest level on the Turkish side considers that at the moment it is not suitable for German members of parliament to conduct political discussions in Turkey,” Roth said.

“This is de facto a rejection of political dialogue. It is a red card for the German parliament,” she added.

Roth, a member of the opposition Greens, was due to head the four-member delegation from three parties on a May 25-28 visit to Ankara, Diyarbakır and İstanbul.

The lawmakers were planning to meet with Turkish lawmakers, journalists, representatives of the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of EU Affairs and human rights activists in Ankara, with the governor, members of the city council, and representatives of civil society in Diyarbakır, along with a visit to the Turkish Parliament.

May/24/2017

BAKU: Armenians warned over planned anti-Azerbaijani provocation in Russia’s Kursk

Bedik Zaminian
APA, Azerbaijan
                                                             

Armenian youth have been warned over a planned anti-Azerbaijani provocation in Russia’s Kursk city on May 28 – Republic Day of Azerbaijan.

 

The chairman of the Development and Renaissance Foundation of Azerbaijani Culture in Russia, Shamil Tagiyev, told APA Azerbaijani youth appealed to concerned bodies, including the city mayor’s office, after the Kursk Armenian Youth Association announced that they would a provocative event on the 25th anniversary of Shusha’s “liberation” and a “concert”.

 

According to him, a group of Azerbaijani diaspora members in Kursk met with representatives of the city mayor’s office and Armenian diaspora to demand that the provocative event be prevented.

 

The Armenians promised that they will put the mistake right and remove the phrase “25th anniversary of the liberation of Shusha” from ads and programs, noted Tagiyev.

 

“It was noted that if any provocative case occurs in connection with Azerbaijan’s occupied territories, Azerbaijanis will react sharply to it,” he added.

 

Note that the Kursk Armenian Youth Association, announced that they will organize a provocative march “25th anniversary of the liberation of Shusha” and a “festive concert” upon an official authorization. The Azerbaijanis living in Russia complained to relevant bodies of the country in this regard.

 

Azerbaijan’s Shusha city was occupied by Armenian armed forces on May 8, 1992.

Rep. Costa calls for action against Turks for violence towards Armenians, Kurdis, Yezidis

Bedik Zaminian
Public Radio of Armenia
13:13,

Rep. Jim Costa (CA-16) has released the following statement regarding members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s security force attacking demonstrators outside of the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC:

“Given Turkey’s movement towards an authoritarian government, President Erdoğan’s visit with the President in the West Wing is unsettling. President Erdoğan’s recent elimination of individual freedoms and jailing members of the press should not be rewarded by a visit to the Oval Office.

“To add injury to insult, it appears that a contingent of President Erdoğan’s security team unilaterally took violent action against peaceful demonstrators who were raising awareness of Turkey’s violations of human rights. The Turkish security guards clearly attacked the Armenian, Kurdish, Yezidi, and other human rights demonstrators, sending nine to the hospital.

“Sadly, it appears that history may be repeating itself. Many of us in recent weeks have seen the movie “The Promise,” which is an accurate historical portrayal of the Armenian genocide that took place beginning in 1915 at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. In the movie, we witnessed the beginnings of these acts of atrocity with the depiction of young, Turkish men beating innocent people. As we know, modern-day Turkey has been unwilling as a country to acknowledge the genocide ever happened. We cannot allow Tuesday’s violent and illegal behavior by the Turkish security guards to go unaddressed.

“The actions of the Turkish security guards are outrageous, and I condemn them. They violate both American law and deeply-held American values. The Turkish security guards must be held accountable.

“Our American President should take appropriate diplomatic and legal action against these Turkish thugs for their violence towards the Armenian, Kurdish, Yezidi, and other human rights demonstrators. If he does so, I believe he will find overwhelming bipartisan support in the US Congress.”

‘I could have died’: how Erdoğan’s bodyguards turned protest into brawl

Bedik Zaminian
The Guardian, UK
Turkey

US lawmakers called on Turkish leader to discipline his security detail, saying violence was reflective of treatment of press, minorities and political opponents

The first sign things could turn violent outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington came when a group of men in trim suits and slick ties approached the small group of demonstrators who had gathered nearby to protest the visit by president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“They curse us, they curse my wife, my mother, my sister, my grandma,” Seyid Riza Dersimi told the Guardian.

Nine people hurt and two arrests made during the altercation at the Turkish ambassador’s residence in the US capital
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Then, suddenly, more men – some in suits and some in matching khaki outfits – surrounded and attacked Dersimi and his fellow demonstrators.

Dersimi, 61, saw one of these men grab a woman around the neck and start punching her in the face. As he moved to help her, he was attacked by three to four men, who pushed him down then kicked him repeatedly.

“I couldn’t get up, I tried to cover my head with my arms, I don’t know how long they were kicking me,” Dersimi said. “Then I get up and I’m bleeding”.

Footage from Tuesday’s protest shows extraordinary scenes of violence in the Washington sunshine. The attackers – who included members of Erdoğan’s security detail – run amok, beating and kicking protesters.

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Footage from Tuesday’s protest shows extraordinary scenes of violence. Photograph: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

The demonstrators – including older men and young women – were left bloodied, battered and bruised, while Washington police officers attempted ineffectually to stop the violence.

Video released on Thursday by Voice of America’s Turkish service appeared to show Erdoğan watching the melee stone-faced from the embassy driveway.

He had just returned from a meeting at the White House with Donald Trump, who rebuffed his attempts to get the US to stop backing Kurdish forces in Syria.

But Erdoğan’s trip has caused him further pain as senior US politicians call on him, and the US government, to discipline the members of his security detail involved with the altercation – which has created a lasting, violent image of peaceful protesters beaten on American soil by people tied to a foreign regime.

After brawl between Turkish security personnel and protesters near the ambassador’s Washington residence, senator says US should eject envoy
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“We should throw their ambassador the hell out of the United States of America,” US senator John McCain said, unprompted, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Thursday morning.

“These are not just average people that did this beating, this is Erdoğan’s security detail, somebody told them to go and beat up on these peaceful demonstrators and I think it should have repercussions, including identifying these people and bringing charges against them,” McCain said. “After all, they violated American laws in the United States of America, so you cannot have that happen in the United States of America”.

He followed the interview with a letter to Erdoğan, co-authored by senator Dianne Feinstein, expressing their “grave concern” about the protest violence.

“The violent response of your security detail to peaceful protesters is wholly unacceptable and, unfortunately, reflective of your government’s treatment of the press, ethnic minority groups and political opponents,” the letter said.

Dersimi was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where he received stitches on his nose, was treated for a head injury and found he had lost one tooth and loosened several others.

“I cannot eat,” he said. “I am just eating yogurt and soup. I cannot chew,” said Dersimi, who welcomed McCain’s comments.

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A man is seen bloodied from head wounds outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington. Photograph: HANDOUT/Reuters
“This is crazy – they are kicking us, I could have died – this is America, this is unacceptable, this is what makes me upset”.

Dersimi, a businessman has been a US citizen since 1992, said he was enraged that a peaceful protest could turn so violent – though he noted that the altercation was peaceful “compared to what happens there [in Turkey]”.

The attacks were not completely unexpected: last year, Erdogan’s security detail clashed with reporters during the president’s visit to Washington DC in March.

The protester’s signs, were certainly provocative – “Mr Trump please stop Erdoğan,” “Turkey support Isis” “Erdoğan loves Isis,” – but in Washington, small, peaceful protests against another country’s government are the norm and are generally met with little fanfare.

And this particular group of anti-government demonstrators were not an intimidating bunch – at least three of the men were older than 60, including Dersimi, and one of the women had brought her child.

Which is what made the violence all the more shocking for protesters such as Ceren Borazan, who identified herself on social media as a woman seen in photos being held around the neck by a suited man.

“I ran in the opposite direction from our friends and got caught by one of the security guards. He put me in a headlock to the point where he popped a blood vessel in my eye,” Borazan wrote on Facebook. “He held me and threatened to kill me.”

Borazan, a Kurd, said that during the attack she had feared for her life. She added that the experience “has shown us that as Kurds we are not even safe from Turkey’s racism and terrorism here in the United States. However that will never stop our spirit and struggle for freedom for our people here and in Kurdistan.”

The citizen journalism blog Bellingcat launched a campaign on Wednesday to identify each person who attacked demonstrators, including a man who went to kick Dersimi, but pulled back at the last moment. The suited man was found in other footage from Erdoğan’s visit as part of his security detail.

The US state department would not confirm that the attackers were connected to the Turkish government, though McCain and other US officials have said as much. Bellingcat also noted that most of the attackers were wearing pins, lanyards and earpieces that most likely indicate they were officials.

The Turkish embassy insisted the opposite late on Wednesday.

The embassy said that the protestors were “affiliated with the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party)“ and had “began aggressively provoking Turkish-American citizens who had peacefully assembled to greet the President”.

“The Turkish-Americans responded in self-defense,” the embassy said. “We hope that, in the future, appropriate measures will be taken to ensure that similar provocative actions causing harm and violence do not occur”.

Mehmet Yuksel is the US representative of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, which has been targeted in a broad crackdown on Turkey’s opposition, press and academia following an attempted coup in 2016.

He arrived at the protests after the altercation had ended to find his friends lying injured on the ground.

Yuksel said one woman Lucy Usoyan, was recieved such extensive head injuries in the attack that her doctor advised her not to speak with reporters.

He said it was “unacceptable” for such violence to occur at a peaceful protest and that there were no signs of the PKK at the demonstrations.

The House committee on foreign affairs asked attorney general Jeff Sessions and secretary of state Rex Tillerson to bring criminal charges against the perpetrators of the attacks in a letter on Wednesday.

In this request, the committee highlighted how the behavior reflected the scenes in Turkey, where tens of thousands of people in Turkey have been detained in Erdoğan’s crackdown.

The letter said: “Alarmingly, this behavior is indicative of the broad crackdowns on political activists, journalists and religious freedom in Turkey that have greatly harmed Turkish democracy in recent years.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/18/erdogan-bodyguards-clash-protesters-dc-lawmakers-respond



 


 

Russian sappers to demine military training areas in Armenian mountains

Bedik Zaminian 
Photo: Sputnik/ Sergey Guneev

 

Russian sappers from Russian military base in Armenia have started mine-clearing activities, the spokesman of Russia’s Southern Military District told Sputnik on Monday, Sputnik reports.

The sappers from the Russian military base in Armenia have started mine-clearing activities in the military training areas located in the mountainous areas of the Caucasian state, Col. Vadim Astafyev, the spokesman of Russia’s Southern Military District told Sputnik on Monday.

“The activities of the servicemen are conducted in the new Dublon protective suits along with… the [mine-sniffing] dogs and the use of advanced mine detectors… The military sappers would explore some 10 hectares [24 acres] of training areas,” Astafyev said.

He added that about 100 servicemen as well as over 10 pieces of military hardware are involved in the demining activities.

Russia has its 102nd Military Base in the city of Gyumri, located in northern Armenia. In line with bilateral treaties between Moscow and Yerevan, the base in Gyumri will run through 2044. The facility is on alert as part of the CIS Integrated Air Defense System.

European Union committed to a stable, democratic and prosperous future of Armenia

Bedik Zaminian

“The election result nevertheless reflects the overall will of the Armenian people,” the EU said in a statement on Almena’s parliamentary elections.

The statement reads:

Parliamentary elections took place in Armenia on 2 April. According to the preliminary conclusions of the International Election Observation Mission (EOM), the elections were well-administered and fundamental freedoms were generally respected. However, the elections were tainted by credible information about vote-buying, and pressure on civil servants and employees of private companies, which contributed to an overall lack of public confidence and trust in the elections. The election result nevertheless reflects the overall will of the Armenian people.

Whilst an unprecedented number of international and domestic observers were provided an enabling environment in which to carry out their work, international non-governmental organisations were not invited to observe, in contradiction to the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document. The International EOM welcomed the introduction of new technologies, which the European Union supported through a project successfully implemented alongside the Armenian authorities, as well as reforms of the legal framework. Despite some minor technical problems, fewer irregularities concerning ballot box stuffing, double voting, counting and tabulation of results were recorded by observers.

The European Union is committed to a stable, democratic and prosperous future of Armenia. Once the electoral process has been completed, we look forward to working with the democratically elected new Parliament and Government to strengthen our political dialogue and continue our support to economic and social reform including on the basis of the recently initialled EU–Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement and within the larger framework of revised European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership.

Free and independent homeland the highest value for Armenian people: Bako Sahakyan

Bedik Zaminian

Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan has issued an address in connection with the anniversary of the Four Day April War.

The address runs as follows:
“Dear compatriots,

A year ago on the night of April the 1st Azerbaijan undertook the large-scale military operation along the whole perimeter of the Karabakh-Azerbaijani border.

The official Baku again tried to solve the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict by force, destroy the independent Artsakh statehood, and commit a new genocide of the Armenian people.

The enemy’s aggression completely failed and it suffered considerable human, material and moral losses unable to realize any of its treacherous programs.

The adversary faced our armed forces, our valiant soldiers, our population that had consolidated into an army, the entire Armenian people, the Mother Armenia and the Diaspora, who immediately stood next to Artsakh. The Armenian people have proved once again that free and independent homeland is the highest value for us and that we are capable of defending our state from any encroachments.

Unfortunately, in the result of the insidious and provocative actions of the adversary we had irretrievable losses. Dozens of servicemen and civilians perished.

Eternal honor and glory to all our martyrs! Their bright memory will always remain in our hearts, their bravery and heroism will become a guideline for the future generations.

Defeated in the battlefield, Azerbaijan has not abandoned its expansionist programs. It continues to conduct anti-Armenian policy, does not refrain from implementing offensive operations in political, information and diplomatic spheres, and keeps violating the ceasefire regime in different sectors of the borders almost on a daily basis. The authorities of Azerbaijan does not hide that it is pursuing a revanchist policy. Such a stance is nothing else than a terrorism, another heinous and inhuman manifestation of genocidal policy.

All these once again confirm a century-long truth for our people: we must always be strong and united, protect our freedom and independence and build a worthy future for the generations to come.

Dear people,
Our spirit is firm, our will is unshakable, our purposes are just. We defend our native land, our homes and families, develop our country by painstaking work. This is a sacred mission that our people will always carry out with dignity”.