Author: David Nargizian

The Kremlin said Wednesday that its fears about Turkey's decision to sell strike drones to Ukraine were being realized and that the Turkish drones risked destabilizing the situation in eastern Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was commenting on the deployment by Ukrainian government forces of a Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone to strike a position in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

"We have really good ties with Turkey, but in this situation, our fears are unfortunately being realized that the deliveries of these types of weapons to the Ukrainian military can potentially destabilize the situation on the line of contact," Peskov told reporters.

Russia-backed separatists have been fighting government troops in Ukraine's Donbass region since 2014, soon after Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. Kyiv says at least 14,000 people have been killed.

Ukraine has bought sophisticated Turkish drones to boost its military and has struck a deal with Ankara to produce the same drones at a factory close to Kyiv, the capital.

The drone issue is one of several straining ties between Turkey and Russia even though the two countries enjoy close ties in other areas.

"We see that as soon as such weapons fall into the hands of the (Ukrainian) military, they can potentially be used in this (eastern) region of Ukraine, and this leads to destabilization," Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, said.

"This does not contribute to the settlement of this internal Ukrainian problem."

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said it had deployed the drone to force pro-Russian separatists into a cease-fire on Tuesday.

It said the drone had destroyed an artillery unit belonging to pro-Russian separatists using a guided bomb. It said the drone had not crossed the line of contact between the two warring sides.

Ukraine gets military backing from the United States and other NATO countries.

Turkey, a NATO member, has criticized Moscow's annexation of Crimea and voiced support for Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Turkey, which faces Ukraine and Russia across the Black Sea, has nonetheless forged close ties with Moscow in the fields of defense and energy.

Minas and Kohar Tölölyan

The Hamazkayin Eastern U.S. Regional executive announced Karenn Chutjian Presti and Lola Koundakjian as winners of the 2021 Minas and Kohar Tölölyan Prize in Contemporary Literature.

Chutjian Presti was recognized for her children’s book in Western Armenian “Աստղիկը Կ՚ուզէ Արագ Մեծնալ (Astghig Wants to Grow up Quickly,” with the prize for work in English language being given to Koundakjian for her bilingual (English and Spanish) collection of poems entitled The moon in the cusp of my hand.

arenn Chutjian Presti (Photo by Stephanie Betjemann

Karenn Chutjian Presti is an award winning author, musician, teacher, performer and lecturer at UCLA H. Alpert School of Music. States, Dr. Presti’s “superbly offered” evening of art song in Bavaria’s Dr. Presti currently arranges, composes, improvises, and plays for the Redondo Ballet.Dr. Presti completed her masters and doctorate degrees at USC, where her awards included Koldofsky Memorial Music Scholarship, the Briggs Memorial Music Scholarship, and the Recognition for Excellence in Collaborative Piano.

She graduated with her bachelors degree as commencement speaker from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she was also the recipient of numerous scholarships.Dr. Presti’s musicological work began with her dissertation under Dr. Richard Dekmejian, “The Reality of Social Realism: Socialist Realism and Its Application to Soviet Armenian Composers”. She lectures on nationalism in music and the history of Armenian music. 

Lola Koundakjian at the Cloisters (Photo By Farida Soumar)

Lola Koundakjian is an award winning poet, editor, artist living in New York. She is also the founder of the Armenian Poetry Project.

In 2020, Nueva York Poetry Press published Lola’s third volume of poetry, The Moon in the Cusp of My Hand/La lune en la cúspide de mi mano.
Lola Koundakjian’s poetry has appeared in many journals. She also has published several volumes of poetry, and her poetry has been translated into Arabic, Ukrainian, Austrian, French, Italian, Spanish.

Koundakjian holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University and has participated in many conferences and her papers have been published in various conference proceedings.

Named after one of the major Armenian literary critics of the second half of the 20th century and his wife, a devoted teacher of that literature for decades, the annually awarded Minas and Kohar Tölölyan Prize in Contemporary Literature recognizes the work produced by talented writers working in North America. The prize is intended to encourage new work in all the major genres of literary production, as they are currently understood in North America.

Leading defense company Baykar has unveiled for the first time its newly designed drone that can hover, take off and land vertically at Turkey’s largest technology and aviation event, Teknofest.

The flight tests of the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are due to be completed soon. Mass production and delivery phases are expected to start in 2022.

The new UAV does not need a landing track and can take off from several different places, including naval or mobile platforms, said Burak Özbek, an air vehicle design engineer at Baykar, which is already known worldwide for its landmark Bayraktar TB2 and Akıncı drones.

The UAV takes off using its four electric engines, then flies using its internal combustion engine, Özbek told Anadolu Agency (AA) Thursday.

“We are currently completing flight tests, after which we hope that we will be able to see their mass production and delivery in 2022,” he said.

Thanks to its hybrid engine system, the UAV can fly up to 12 hours, the engineer said, adding that its engine can also charge the vehicle’s battery.

It has a take-off weight is 50 kilograms (110 pounds) and can carry 5 kilograms of useful loads, like thermal cameras, laser designators or distance meters, Özbek said.

With a wingspan of 5 meters (16 feet), the UAV is capable of taking off from a 20-meter by 20-meter (66-foot by 66-foot) area.

“Its operational altitude is 9,000 feet (2,743 meters) but it can fly up to 15,000 feet,” Özbek said, adding its flying speed is around 40-50 knots.

The UAV is an observer drone and Baykar works with domestic and foreign partners on the systems installed in it, he said.

The company said that the tested UAV is equipped with an engine produced by Turkish engine maker Erin Motors.

This engine has an electronic fuel injection system, making it much more reliable, he said, adding that there are only a few similar UAVs in the world.

The UAV technology is in direct proportion to battery technology, he stressed and said its new versions have a higher capacity for carrying ammo.

Stressing that the avionics, electronic systems and software in this UAV have already proven themselves in the Bayraktar TB2 and Akıncı UAVs, he explained that Baykar uses the same systems for all of its vehicles.

One of the biggest aviation events in the world, Teknofest kicked off Tuesday, drawing thousands of aerospace and technology enthusiasts to Atatürk Airport.

The six-day event is hosting a range of activities, from air shows featuring warplanes, UAVs and helicopters, to seminars, summits, competitions and fairs.

The 2021 edition has seen some technology competitions take place prior to the main event. The festival features dozens of competitions in categories like smart transportation, helicopter design, biotechnology, robotics, flying cars, rockets and unmanned underwater systems.

Organized by the T3 Foundation and the Industry and Technology Ministry, Teknofest is held in various Turkish cities in even years and in the metropolis of Istanbul in odd years.

Over 200,000 students in 45 teams applied for this year’s competitions, marking a significant increase from the previous three years.

Around 100,000 visitors are allowed in an area of 450,000 square meters (4.84 million square feet) at the same time due to pandemic-related measures.

Last year, the event was organized virtually in southern Gaziantep province due to pandemic measures. In 2019, some 1.72 million people visited the event in Istanbul.