Author: Manouk Vasilian

At least two thousand Syrian rebel fighters have re-entered the country from Turkey over the last week to reinforce insurgents fending off an assault by Syrian Kurdish-led militias, rebel sources said on Thursday, reports.

The rebel fighters, with weapons and vehicles, have been covertly escorted across the border by Turkish forces over several nights, before heading into the embattled rebel stronghold of Azaz, the sources said.

“We have been allowed to move everything from light weapons to heavy equipment mortars and missiles and our tanks,” Abu Issa, a commander in the Levant Front, the rebel group that runs the border crossing of Bab al-Salam, told Reuters giving his alias and talking on condition of anonymity.

“There is tight security on the four-hour drive from one border crossing to the other,” he added, saying rebels being transported excluded the hardline Nusra Front fighters and other jihadist groups.

On Sunday, the Syrian government had said Turkish forces were among 100 gunmen who had entered Syria accompanied by 12 pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, in an ongoing supply operation to insurgents.

The route across Turkey has become the only path for rebels to their north Aleppo enclave after recent Syrian army advances closed the main route into rebel territory.

The UK’s Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks violence across the war torn-country, also confirmed that hundreds of rebel fighters had already crossed with weapons via a border crossing into Azaz.

Another rebel source said the Turkish military have stepped up delivery of munitions and heavy military hardware in the last two days to bolster rebels facing the major offensive launched by the Syrian army and its allies.

OSCE Chairman-in-Office, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter-Steinmeier has called for the creation of a mechanism to investigate violations in the Kaabkh conflict zone.

“As regards the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, armed clashes along the line of contact and the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan give us cause for concern,” the OSCE Chairman-in-Office wrote in an article published by the

“Germany is campaigning for an intensification of the negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group. One important step to this end would be the creation of a mechanism to investigate violations of the ceasefire,” he added.

Frank Walter-Steinmeier said the conflicts in Transdniestria, Nagorno-Karabakh and the Southern Caucasus cannot be called “frozen”. “Each year they continue to bring hardship to the people affected and stagnation to the regions involved. We want to stabilize the ceasefires, build trust and improve the day-to-day lives of the people by taking small but tangible steps, such as improving economic exchange.”

An event to mark the launch of the Project “Long-term electoral assistance to the election related stakeholders of Armenia” will take place on Friday, 5.

This Project is launched in Armenia under the European Union and the Council of Europe’s Programmatic Co-operation Framework in the Eastern Partnership Countries for 2015-2017 (). The €33.8 million-worth co-operation agreement was signed in December 2014 to promote human rights, democracy and the rule of law in six Eastern Partnership countries, including Armenia.

This country specific Project for Armenia aims at strengthening the capacity of the main election stakeholders of the country through capacity building and awareness raising involving both the electoral authorities and civil society as well as sharing best practice on election related issues within the Eastern Partnership countries. The duration of the Project is 18 months. The budget is 302,000 EUR.

Key speakers include H.E. Mr Piotr Antoni Świtalski, Ambassador, Head of the European Union Delegation to Armenia (tbc), Ms Natalia Voutova, Head of Council of Europe Office in Yerevan, Mr Tigran Mukuchyan, Chair of RA Central Electoral Commission, and Mr François Friederich, Head of the Division of Electoral Assistance and Census, Council of Europe.

Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan received the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk. The parties discussed the situation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

Minister Ohanyan presented the recent provocations of Azerbaijan and the retaliatory measures taken by the Armenian side.

The Armenian Defense Minister reiterated the importance of working out international mechanisms to reinforce the control of the situation.

Ambassador Kasprzyk, in turn, expressed concern over the escalation of the situation and promised to take relevant steps.

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has offered to take the case of jailed Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova to the European Court of Human Rights, the Azerbaijani Service of Radio Liberty reports.

Ismayilova, an RFE/RL contributor, and her lawyer are said to be considering Clooney’s offer.

Clooney, the wife of Hollywood actor George Clooney, has taken on several prominent cases in recent years in such countries as Egypt, Armenia, and the Maldives, defending people imprisoned on charges often seen by human rights groups as politically motivated.

Ismayilova was sentenced in September 2015 to 7 1/2 years in prison on charges widely viewed as being trumped up in retaliation for her reports linking family members of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to massive business and real estate holdings.

The Azerbaijani side fired more than 450 shots from artillery weapons of different caliber last night.

The rival also used 60 mm mortars and HAN-17 grenades, the NKR Ministry of Defense reported.

The activeness of the rival was pressured as a result of the retaliatory measures taken by the front divisions of the NKR Defense Army.

Photo: Flickr/ UK Ministry of Defence

 

Turkish laboratories are processing Afghan opium into heroin for deliveries to Europe, the director of Russia’s Federal Narcotics Control Service said Tuesday, reports.

Earlier on Tuesday, Viktor Ivanov said that Russian and Afghan drug police confiscated more than 600 kilograms (over 1,300 pounds) of opium in the province of Baglan in December in a joint operation.

“The cargo traveled along the route of Badakhshan-Doshi-Bamiyan-Herat, then further through Iran and into Turkey, where the opium was processed in well-equipped laboratories … into high quality heroin, and then was to be sent to Europe and Russia,” Ivanov said during an anti-narcotics committee meeting.

the Islamic State is receiving between $200 million and $500 million annually from smuggling Afghan heroin into Europe, he said.

“According to our figures, the amount of revenue could be from $200 to $500 million annually,” Viktor Ivanov told journalists, adding that Turkey was used as a transit country for the deadly drug.

Photo: Salta Police

 

At least 25 people have been killed after a police bus fell off a bridge in north-west Argentina, local media say.

The bus was carrying at least 50 people, most of them members of Argentina’s border police, when it came off the road and fell about 15m (50ft) down a ravine.

Emergency workers are trying to free dozens of passengers who are still trapped.

The cause of the accident is still unknown.

The bus came off the road at 02:00 local time (05:00 GMT) near the town of Rosario del Fuente in Salta province, police officials said.

It was travelling on national highway 34 when the driver lost control of the vehicle as he was coming over the bridge, they said.

In the evening of December 2, President Serzh Sargsyan gave a comprehensive interview to the representatives of the Armenian TV companies and answered multiple questions related to the Constitutional changes such as the necessity of initiating such changes and the objective behind it, significance of the changes for the state, arguments of those who speak against the changes in the Main Law, the validity of these arguments, etc.

The journalists asked also about the preliminary investigation of the criminal case filed by the Investigation Department of the RA National Security Service in connection with the special operation recently carried out by the law enforcement bodies in the capital.

Photo:  Sputnik

The South Ossetian Parliament will consider the issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Speaker Anatoly Bibilov told .

“We regret that South Ossetia has not recognized the Armenian Genocide until now. The issue is on the parliament agenda now, and will be put on a discussion. It’s necessary to give a proper assessment to the crime committed in the Ottoman Empire and condemn the policy of denial of genocide,” he said.

The Speaker noted that “while world powers are guided by opportunistic interests on the matter, we do not question the historic truth.” “That’s why, guided by the principle of historical justice and preservation of historical memory, it’s necessary to acknowledge the fact of atrocities in the Ottoman Empire and the mass killing of Armenians,” Bibilov said.

According to the Speaker, although the issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide is not new in South Ossetia, it has acquired a new meaning after the recent developments.

“Taking into consideration the latest downing of the Russian jet and assessing it as an act of aggression against our main strategic partner, the only adequate response to Turkey will be the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, along with a set of other steps. This step goes in line with the strategic path of development we have chosen,” the Speaker stressed.

He added that South Ossetia is not afraid of damaging ties with Turkey, as there are no relations as such. The same is true about Azerbaijan.