Author: Edgar Tavakalian

Two Turkish journalists face life in prison over a story alleging that the Turkish government was arming Islamist militants in Syria, the BBC reports.

Cumhuriyet newspaper’s editor-in-chief Can Dundar and its Ankara representative Erdem Gul have been charged with espionage.

Prosecutors accuse them of working with a US-based cleric to discredit the government.

The harsh punishment being sought has intensified press freedom concerns.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said he was “shocked” at the severity of the sentence sought by prosecutors.

Human Rights Watch said the two “were doing their job as journalists and no more than that”.

In its report last May, Cumhuriyet published video of police finding weapons in trucks that it said were linked to Turkish intelligence.

The Turkish authorities insisted the trucks, which had been intercepted near the Syrian border, were in fact bringing aid to Syria’s Turkmen minority.

Germany has assumed the chairmanship of the OSCE. The Head of the OSCE Office in Armenia, Ambassador Andrei Sorokin and German Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia Matthias Kisler met with reporters today to present the priorities of the German presidency.

Ambassador Kisler said the resolution of conflicts will be a priority for the German presidency. Referring to the Karabakh conflict, he said “Germany is convinced the co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group is the only forum for organizing the dialogue between the conflicting parties.”

The German Ambassador expressed his concern over the situation at the line of contact, especially the use of heavy weapons, which results in casualties.

“Germany closely cooperates and fully supports the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ initiative to create a mechanism of investigation of border incidents,” he said. “Germany is aware of the importance of the mechanism for both parties and wants the sides to agree to its implementation,” Amb. Kisler stressed.

Andrei Sorokin, in turn, reminded that the issue was discussed during Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Germany. The Ambassador refuted the rumors about Germany’s intention to replace France as a Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Without going into details about the two anti-Armenian reports debated by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe yesterday, Matthias Kisler said “the Minsk Group is the only forum for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, other movements and forums are unacceptable.”

The Head of the OSCE Office in Armenia said “the two reports were obviously very unpleasant and anti-Armenian.” According to him, the fact that the more important of the two was rejected can be seen as a victory.

“I think PACE is following some policy line, which ignored all principles, including the basic principles of the OSCE,” he said.

Visitors to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles can see for themselves what a legal battle that raged for five years was all about. Two brilliantly illuminated pages—part of a table of contents from the Zeyt’un Gospels, a Medieval Armenian bible—are on show as part of the exhibition Traversing the Globe Through Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts (until 26 June), reports.

The Getty bought eight of these contents pages, known as a canon table, for $950,000 from an Armenian-American family in 1994. But their proper ownership has been in question since 2010, when a US branch of the Armenian Apostolic Church brought a lawsuit against the Getty, maintaining that the pages had been looted during the Armenian genocide of the First World War.

The lawsuit was finally settled last year, when the Getty acknowledged the church as the rightful owner and agreed to pay undisclosed lawyers’ fees. The church agreed to donate the pages to the museum.

The pages are by the 13th-century Armenian master Toros Roslin, who worked in tempera and gold paint on parchment. A page on show at the Getty for the first time in more than a decade reveals how he blends natural forms such as twisting pomegranate trees and roosters with architecture, using a brilliant palette of green, gold, red and blue.

Amid calls for a boycott of the Academy Awards over its all-white acting nominees and Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith both announcing they would sit out this year’s ceremony, the academy’s president said it was time for major changes and soon, the Associated Press reports.

Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs issued a statement promising more diversity, and quickly, after both Lee and Pinkett spoke out on Monday.

In a lengthy Instagram post, Lee said he “cannot support” the “lily white” Oscars. Noting that he was writing on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Lee who in November was given an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards said he was fed up: “Forty white actors in two years and no flava at all,” he wrote. “We can’t act?!”

In a video message on Facebook, Pinkett Smith also said she wouldn’t attend or watch the Oscars in February. Pinkett Smith, whose husband Will Smith wasn’t nominated for his performance in the NFL head trauma drama “Concussion,” said it was time for people of color to disregard the Academy Awards.

“Begging for acknowledgement, or even asking, diminishes dignity and diminishes power,” she said. “And we are a dignified people and we are powerful.”

She added: “Let’s let the academy do them, with all grace and love. And let’s do us differently.” The video had amassed 4.5 million by mid-Monday afternoon.

Last year’s all-white acting nominees also drew calls for a boycott, though not from such prominent individuals as Lee and Pinkett Smith. Whether it had any impact or not, the audience for the broadcast, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, was down 16 percent from the year prior, a six-year low.

NEW YEAR’S MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS KAREKIN II
SUPREME PATRIARCH AND CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin
December 31, 2015

Dear Faithful in the Homeland and the Diaspora,

It is the festive day of New Year. We extend Our Pontifical love and blessings from the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin to you dear faithful people of Armenia.

We leave the year 2015 with a grateful wish, new hopes, and expectations. The past year was a sacred year for us because of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Through the efforts of our Church and people, commemorative events were organized in all corners of the world. The “Pan-Armenian Declaration” to promote our virtuous case and path to justice was announced at Tsitsernakaberd. In the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, we held the Canonization of the Holy Martyrs and the Blessing of the Holy Muron. The commemorative events brought new spiritual strength and vigor to our life, becoming an occasion for national unity, strengthening of faith and love in our hearts, and reinforcing the conviction of our people to achieve justice.

Though we recorded successes and achievements, we also had difficulties and troubles in the passing year, and also fears and painful losses. With dignity, a brave heart and unified efforts, our people withstood all the challenges; defending this country’s borders and peace in our lives was acquired at a high price. Dear ones, let’s celebrate the year 2016 with intensified spirit and optimism. In 2016, we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the restoration of our independent statehood in Armenia and Artsakh. Supporting each other in Armenia and the Diaspora, let us invest in every possibility to make our country more prosperous, make our life beneficial, and make our future bright.

On this New Year’s Day, on the eve of the feast of the Holy Nativity and Theophany of Jesus Christ, let us join in prayer for the world, our country, and the peaceful and safe life of our people. Let us remember the needy, the sick, and those in sorrow; our brothers and sisters bearing the trials of war in the Middle East; and our nation’s children living in the border areas; offering to them our hand of support and assistance.

We raise a prayer for our children who died heroically in battles, our brave soldiers defending the borders of our countries and the commanders.

We extend our prayers to the Almighty for new achievements for our national authorities, the clergy, and all the nations’ sons and daughters. We pray for safety for the families; glorious and good service to the soldiers of our Army; heavenly grace and love to our infants and young children, and blessings to the lives of all Armenians. Happy New Year!

Photo: TASS    

Russia’s airbase in the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, has started flight calibration of squadrons of Mi-24P helicopter gunships that have entered service over December, Maj. Andrey Dobrosmyslov, spokesman for the Southern Military District of Russia’s Armed Forces, said Friday, TASS reports.

“During flight calibration, crews of the attack helicopters will practice takeoff, flights at various speeds, at altitudes of 100 to 1,500 meters and landing,” Dobrosmyslov said. “In easy and complicated weather conditions, the pilots will inspect the parts and accessories during loads and g-loads,” he said. “The flight calibration of the helicopter squadron will last two months.”

“We think that the summit on Nagorno Karabakh offered the presidents an important opportunity to meet face to face for the first time in over a year and to clarify their positions,” Spokesperson of the US Department of State John Kirby told a daily briefing.

“The presidents themselves recognized that the situation on the ground has deteriorated and expressed concern about civilian casualties caused by the use of heavy weapons. At their request, the Minsk Group co-chairs will continue to work on proposals to reduce the risk of violence. The co-chairs are also prepared to support a meeting of the presidents next year to continue their discussions on a settlement,” Kirby said.

“As a co-chair country, the United States remains firmly committed to mediating a peaceful resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he said.

“We support proposals to reduce the risk of violence along the line of contact. Our Minsk Group co-chair, Ambassador Warlick, together with his Russian and French counterparts, continues to discuss these – all these measures with both sides. Another way to reduce tensions, we believe, is to increase people-to-people contacts, especially among the communities of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenians and Azerbaijanis live side by side for generations, and we believe that for peace to come, they will need to trust each other once again,” the Spokesman said.

Photo by Reuters

Militants from so-called Islamic State (IS) say they were behind two suicide bomb attacks in the Lebanese capital Beirut, which killed at least 41, the BBC reports.

The bombed suburb of Burj al-Barajneh is a stronghold of Hezbollah forces fighting IS in Syria.

The Lebanese government has declared Friday a day of national mourning.

PM Tammam Salam called for unity in the face of attempts to create strife. The bombing is the worst in Beirut since the end of Lebanon’s civil war in 1990.

About 100 cases of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani side were registered at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan last night.

The rival used weapons of different caliber, including 60mm mortars as it fired 1,800 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army confidently continue with their military duty along the line of contact and resort to retaliatory measures if necessary.