Azerbaijani Press: OSCE Sec-Gen: Karabakh conflict settlement process should be resumed

Trend, Azerbaijan
Nov 15 2017
18:13 (UTC+04:00)
  • Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

    By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

    The process of settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resumed, OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger said in an interview with Italy’s Agenzia Nova.

    He said the work carried out by Andrzej Kasprzyk, the personal representative of the chairperson-in-office, is of great importance in terms of preventing the escalation of the conflict, especially along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops.

    "The OSCE’s work is to control the process, rather than to resolve the conflict," Greminger said. “The sides of the conflict [Armenia and Azerbaijan] are responsible for the conflict settlement.”

    As for all the protracted conflicts in general, Greminger said the OSCE plays the role of a mediator, but the conflict settlement depends on the political will of the sides involved.

    The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

    The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

    Film: ‘Intent To Destroy’ director Joe Berlinger: ‘Armenians deserve their ‘Schindler’s List”

    89.3 KPCC
    Nov 13 2017


    'Intent To Destroy' director Joe Berlinger: 'Armenians deserve their 'Schindler's List''



        

    Joe Berlinger’s documentaries, which include "Paradise Lost" and "Brother’s Keeper," have often focused on the justice system.

    His new film, called “Intent to Destroy,” takes an unusual angle about what many people consider to be a miscarriage of justice. The film looks at how Hollywood has depicted the Armenian Genocide, and how it also has been pressured — and agreed — to ignore that story.

    The Turkish government refuses to acknowledge — and even denies — what historians broadly agree was the Ottoman Empire’s extermination of about 1.5 million Armenians starting in 1915.  

    Berlinger takes an interesting approach to telling this story. He frames his documentary around the making of another movie — last year’s historical drama, "The Promise," directed by Terry George and starring Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac. The film is set in the Ottoman Empire on the eve of World War I and follows Isaac as a  young Armenian medical student.

    The Frame's John Horn recently spoke with Berlinger.

    On what a documentary can do that a narrative film can't:

    In the documentary, I have a lot of the real actors — some of whom are of Armenian descent — telling me how they feel and they're in absolute tears. Along the way, I'm able to intercut actual survivor testimonies of those who survived those massacres and to bring in documentary elements and photographs from the time. So the documentary becomes much more graphic than a feature film could be, but the two work together and reflect off of one another. One of the concerns of mine is, how do you represent atrocity on screen, as well as the underlying theme that whoever controls the narrative actually controls the history? And how the story has been depicted over the years has determined why we're in a situation where there's been this terrible slaughter of the majority of Armenians living in Turkey in 1915, and yet it's considered contested history today. 

    On framing his documentary through the film "The Promise":

    Even though I've been fascinated by the Armenian Genocide … I never felt like I had anything to add to the dialogue. I never thought about making a film until I heard that "The Promise" was being made and I thought that would be a great way, from a filmmaking standpoint, how to bring a historical subject to life. So I thought that by embedding with the making of a big budget film on the subject, I could then pull the frame out wider and tell the historical context and give the audience a digestible way to consume all of this information by being in the present tense and telling an unfolding story. But there's a larger thematic reason that embedding with "The Promise" really made a lot of sense to me. That's because the basic facts of the genocide as a documentary has been done before. That's not what's interesting to me. What's interesting to me as a filmmaker, where I feel like I'm adding to the dialogue, is to paint a portrait of denial — the aftermath of denial, the impact of denial, how denial works.

    On what embedding with "The Promise" allowed him to achieve:

    It allowed me a perfect device to tell that story, because part of the denial is that any time Hollywood has, over the decades, attempted to tell a story that has the Armenian Genocide as its backdrop, generally speaking, the Turkish government complains to the State Department and the State Department has persuaded Hollywood studios to drop these projects. Most notably, as early as 1935, Irving Thalberg at MGM was making the film, "40 Days of Musa Dagh," which — at the time — was one of the most popular novels in the world and it was the story of Armenian resistance … during the Genocide. That movie was in pre-production at MGM and the State Department convinced MGM to drop the project. It's been a taboo subject over the decades.

    This is just a partial transcript. For the full interview please press the play button at the top left. 

    En 1924, la France a acheté à la Turquie plus de 400 tonnes d’os de Grecs et d’Arméniens massacrés par les Turcs

    La Gazette Du Citoyen
    1 nov 2017
    En 1924, la France a acheté à la Turquie plus de 400 tonnes d'os de Grecs et d'Arméniens massacrés par les Turcs

    Publié le 1 novembre 2017

    Les Turcs ont vendu les os des Grecs et des Arméniens qu'ils avaient massacrés après la 1ere guerre mondiale. 400 tonnes d'os ont été achetées par la France pour un usage industriel.

    Ces massacres en Asie Mineure ont entraîné la mort de milliers de personnes (en septembre 1922, plus de 200,000 civils grecs ont été tués par les Turcs à Smyrne) et le déplacement de 1,5 million de Grecs.

    Un autre crime commis par les Turcs s'est produit deux ans plus tard et est resté inconnu pendant des années. Il s'agit de la vente des ossements de tous les gens qui avaient été massacrés par les Jeunes Turcs de Mustafa Kemal.

    A gauche, les ossements vendus, à droite, Mustafa Kemal

    Selon les rapports, les os des Grecs ont été vendus par les Turcs aux Français pour un "usage" industriel! Au total, 400 tonnes d'ossements humains, soit les ossements de 50,000 personnes, ont été transférées aux industries françaises à Marseille. Le 13 décembre 1924, un navire britannique est arrivé à Thessalonique, en Grèce. Lorsque les travailleurs du port ont su que la cargaison se composait d'os, ils ont empêché le bateau de repartir. Ensuite, des réfugiés choqués qui réclamaient la saisie de l'envoi ont manifestés dans la ville, .

    Finalement, le consulat du Royaume Uni est intervenu et le gouvernement grec a autorisé le départ du bateau afin d'éviter un conflit avec les Britanniques. Le 14 décembre 1924, le journal "Macedonia" confirmait l'arrivée du navire à Thessalonique mais ne mentionnait pas que la cargaison de ce dernier se composait d'ossements humains.

    Le même mois, le New York Times publiait un article avec le titre suivant: "Une incroyable histoire d'une expédition d'os humains." Un autre article du journal français Midi mentionnait les ossements des victimes du génocide arménien humains qui devaient être vendus à Marseille.

    A gauche, l'article du New York Times, à droite celui de Midi

    Elias Venezis dans son livre "Number 31328" mentionne le processus de collecte des ossements par des personnes capturées par les Turcs. Quand il avait 18 ans, Venezis a été capturé avec 3.000 autres personnes. Il a écrit le livre après son retour d'Orient, pour décrire les difficultés que lui et d'autres prisonniers ont traversées après la catastrophe d'Asie Mineure.

    Dans le prologue de son livre, il écrit: "Il n'y a rien de plus profond et de plus saint qu'un corps en souffrance, ce livre est dédié à cette souffrance."

    Lien de l'article en anglais:

    http://www.thinkinghumanity.com/2017/10/they-sold-the-bones-of-greeks-and-armenians-who-were-killed-in-turkey-400-tons-of-bones-were-transferred-to-france-for-industrial-use.html

    Azerbaijani press: Pakistan says Armenia’s destroying monuments in occupied Azerbaijani lands unacceptable (PHOTO)

    1 November 2017 22:03 (UTC+04:00)

    Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 1

    Trend:

    Armenia’s destroying ancient religious and cultural monuments, belonging to the Islamic world, in the occupied Azerbaijani lands is unacceptable, said Deputy Chairman of Pakistani Senate Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri.

    He was addressing a meeting with Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Pakistan Ali Alizade, Azerbaijani Embassy in Pakistan told Trend.

    At the meeting, it was noted that the support of Pakistani Senate’s Committee for Foreign Affairs for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, its recognition of the Khojaly genocide and acceptance of resolutions demanding immediate withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories are highly appreciated by Azerbaijan.

    Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said that Pakistan considers Azerbaijan a fraternal country, and noted the importance of strengthening unity and cooperation among Islamic countries, adding a perfect example of this is the Pakistani-Azerbaijani relations.

    The sides also exchanged views on the organization of high-level mutual visits, as well as expansion of cooperation in economic and humanitarian spheres.

    The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

    The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

    In our country, people can follow and record to another person in order to make decisions in the future – Marina Poghosyan

     

    The secret police officers recorded the conversation of Marine Poghosyan, chairman of the Felix human rights organization, with her close friend Arpi Meras. On September 11, 2015, Arpi Meras from Canada met Marina Poghosyan and their conversation was secretly recorded both at the cafe and Poghosyan’s own apartment.

    It should be noted that these tapes were laid as a basis for the criminal case against Marina Poghosyan.

    Let us remind that it was pressed charges against Marina Poghosyan for the fact that she had stolen the apartment of Arpi Meras, located at Nalbandyan 50, Yerevan, its properties, and $ 140,000 from their sales.

    “A1 +” invited to Marina Poghosyan to talk more about the topic.

    Kachik Manukyan is at stake of losing his apartment (video)

    Kachik Manukyan, poet, member of the Writers’ Union of Armenia, was presented an ultimatum, according to which he had to release his apartment with his family members yesterday.

    A1+ tried to brighten the messy story.

    Why was the writer at stake of losing his apartment?

    “I have always avoided giving public attention to this story,” says Khachik Manukyan, adding that no matter how many promises had been given  after the suicide of the bank’s manager on solving issue, it did not receive a solution.

    Details are available in the video

    Forecast: The interests of the EU dictate pushing Armenia to abandon the "unconstructive and uncompromising position" on Karabakh.

    ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
     Friday
    
    
     Forecast: The interests of the EU dictate pushing Armenia to abandon
    the "unconstructive and uncompromising position" on Karabakh.
    
    Yerevan October 27
    
    Angela Stepanyan. The "four-day war" of 2016 is a clear indication of
    Turkey's readiness to toughen its position with regard to Armenia
    under certain conditions. The Russian analyst Sergey Markedonov voiced
    his opinion.
    
    "In this light, we have to admit that until then the Republic of
    Turkey remains a member of NATO, while having the second largest army
    after the US, the North Atlantic integration vector remains optional
    for Armenia, and moreover, the EU's economic ties with Azerbaijan,
    coupled with an active desire to reduce Russia's energy domination is
    clearly not compelling Brussels to consider the interests of Yerevan
    as a priority of its Caucasian policy," he said.
    
    In this light, the analyst predicts Yerevan's push to abandon
    "non-constructivism and uncompromising attitude to Karabakh" in case
    of overcoming the forthcoming signing of the Armenia-EU comprehensive
    and expanded partnership agreement with additional integration
    factors. In this context, Markedonov notes security as an argument
    capable of outweighing for Yerevan contacts with the EU in economics,
    technology and finance.
    
    It is important for analysts that up to at least the transition from
    imitation to meaningful negotiations on the Karabakh settlement, the
    weight of this argument will not undergo any changes, and Russia
    remains on this particular vector for Armenia without alternative.
    
    November 24, 2017 at the Brussels summit of the "Eastern Partnership"
    Armenia plans to sign a partnership document on the partnership with
    the EU, which was initialed on March 21 - the Agreement on
    Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership. The Council of Foreign
    Ministers of the EU initiated the relevant talks on October 12, 2015
    in Luxembourg.
    
    

    “We agreed to take measures to ease tension to avoid losses in the frontline”- Serzh Sargsyan

    Categories
    Artsakh
    Politics
    Region

    At the initiative of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, the meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents was held at the residence of the Swiss permanent representative in the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva on October 16, press service of the President’s Office reported.

    The meeting was attended by Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov, as well as the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Igor Popov (Russia), Stephane Visconti (France), Andrew Schofer (USA) and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.

    The meeting was followed by a private meeting of Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev.

    The opportunities to move forward the negotiation process over the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict were discussed. As a result of negotiations the Presidents agreed to take measures to intensify the negotiation process and take additional steps to reduce tension in the line of contact.

    The Co-Chairs expressed their satisfaction with these direct talks, which took place after a long interval. They remain ready to work with the sides on mediating a peacefully negotiated settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

    The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs issued a joint statement based on the negotiation results.

    On October 16, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan also had a meeting with the Armenian community representatives in the Armenian Embassy in Switzerland. During the meeting the President presented the results of talks with the Azerbaijani President.

    “A few minutes ago the meeting with the Azerbaijani President ended: we have no concrete, the so-called, agreement on the ways of settling the conflict. But we agreed to take measures to ease tension to avoid losses in the frontline. I want to state that both the Azerbaijani President and I are deeply interested in this.

    God willing, he thinks this way always. He as well understands very well the complexity of the issue, of course, me too, but the problem is such that there will never be an easy solution. But I want you all to be confident on one issue – there is no settlement for us which can somehow undermine Karabakh’s security. The only settlement for us is that Karabakh be out of Azerbaijan. No Armenian leader can ever make such a decision and implement it, and we will do everything for that at the same time developing Armenia and strengthening our country economically”, the President said.

    Gagik Makaryan: No document is sent to the government without our opinion (video)

    A structure that has been able to make its voice heard in all state agencies. This is how the Republican Union of Employers of Armenia (RUEA) characterizes the results of its activity.

    ‘We are actively involved in all reforms. We can say that no document is sent to the government without our opinion. We have provided serious representation in the country,” says RUEA President Gagik Makaryan.

    During the ten years of its activity the Union has increased the number of its members from 160 to 13.000. About 45 percent of them work in the private sector. Gagik Makaryan says this is a serious number for ‘having a final say.’

    “We quickly respond all the changes. I can say that we are always on the alert. We say, ‘You haven’t done this or that, or you have done it wrong and it is not important that we mostly were not heard [in the past], the important thing is that we say and now it starts to influence.”

    Though there are numerous recorded achievements, people at the RUEA say they still have a lot of work to do, especially the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have many problems that need to be addressed. The Union promises to continually voice them until they find a final solution.