Author: Maral Chavushian

Photo: AFP

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to bring terrorism “to its knees” after an attack in the capital Ankara that killed at least 36 people, the BBC reports.

Mr Erdogan said the suicide car bomb would serve only to strengthen the resolve of Turkey’s security forces.

The blast in the key transport hub of Guven Park injured more than 100. At least one suspected bomber also died.

Turkish planes bombed targets in Iraq of the Kurdish rebel PKK, which officials suspect is behind the attack.

Eleven warplanes carried out air strikes on 18 targets including ammunition dumps and shelters, the army said.

Meanwhile there are reports of curfews being imposed in areas of south-eastern Turkey as security operations are carried out against Kurdish militants.

No group has admitted carrying out the Ankara attack, but government sources had cast suspicion on the outlawed PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party).

Georgia’s opposition United National Movement Party staged a human chain protest against Gazprom on March 6 in Tbilisi after the country’s Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze said on March 5 that Georgia and Russia’s state energy giant Gazprom had agreed in principle to keep the existing gas transit terms and pay Georgia 10% of Russian gas transported to Armenia via Georgia.

“Agreement has been achieved; only signing of the contract is now left,” the Georgian Energy Minister told journalists.

“According to the agreement this year we remain within the scope of the existing contract, which is in force for years already, envisaging receiving as a transit fee 10 percent of natural gas transported [from Russia to Armenia],” he said, adding that the contract will run until the end of 2016.

Kaladze’s remarks came a day after the Georgian Energy Ministry announced about a new deal with Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR, according to which Georgia will receive an additional  500 million cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan.

Gazprom wanted to monetize transit fee and pay cash, instead of 10% of gas transported to Armenia via Georgia.

If monetized, Georgia would not have receive enough cash to buy the same amount of gas it is now receiving as a transit fee; in such case the country would have required to buy more gas from Gazprom.

But after announcing about additional gas supplies from Azerbaijan, Energy Minister Kaladze said on March 4 that there was “no need for additional volumes of gas” from Russia at this stage.

Georgia’s opposition United National Movement Party staged a human chain protest against Gazprom on March 6 in Tbilisi.

Tensions were high at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan last night, the NKR Defense ministry reports.

The rival used artillery weapons of different caliber as it fired more than 2,000 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

“The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep control of the situation at the state border and resort to retaliatory measures if necessary,” the Ministry said in a statement.

Meretz chairman MK Zehava Galon charged Wednesday that Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party is getting financial support from Azerbaijan government officials in return for advancing Baku’s political and financial interests in Israel,  reports.

According to Galon, Yisrael Beiteinu is supporting the interests of the Azeri national fuel company and has been actively working to prevent Israel from officially recognizing the Turkish genocide of Armenians during World War I, because of Azerbaijan’s territorial feud with Armenia.

Galon said that she has filed a complaint on the matter to Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, along with evidence of her claims. Party chairman Lieberman vehemently denied Galon’s allegations, saying “not a word of what Galon said is true.”

Galon made the statement in the Knesset Wednesday while condemning Yisrael Beiteinu’s support of the so-called “transparency bill,” which primarily targets left-wing NGOs that get funding from foreign governments. Galon charged that Lieberman’s own party benefited from Azeri government money.

“You are the foreign agents of the Azeris,” she said. “You are getting benefits from them; you have set up organizations through which you get money from them. You set up the organization called AZIZ, you are part of the management of AZIZ.

“Knesset colleagues, the AZIZ organization, the Israel-Azerbaijan International Association, serves as a financial and organization platform for Yisrael Beiteinu, and is funded by Azeri government officials. You are party of AZIZ’s management in a revolving door fashion; whoever isn’t an MK or a minister is part of AZIZ’s management.

“Avigdor Lieberman, when he was foreign minister, attended a conference funded by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, the same company that a year before Lieberman helped get involved in oil and gas drilling off the Israeli coast. This company got a five percent share, and it’s funded by a foundation headed by the president of Azerbaijan,” said Galon.

She added that former Yisrael Beiteinu MK Faina Kirschenbaum “named a street in Israel after the father of Azerbaijan’s great dictator.” The Meretz leader also accused Lieberman and his party of “working to prevent the recognition of the Armenian genocide because you are envoys of the Azerbaijan government and because of Nagorno-Karabakh. You are getting millions from Azeri sources through the fund you’ve set up and you dare to speak of and demand transparency from civic society groups. You are a corrupt gang and now you are seeking to work against civic society organizations.”

Lieberman categorically denied Galon’s claims, saying, “In this case, as usual, there is not a word of truth in what Zehava Galon is saying. MK Galon, who was questioned for hours by the police [in 2001 on suspicion of financial irregularities in a peace center she ran] and whose case was closed for lack of evidence, has turned lies and libel into a way of life. Even Meretz doesn’t deserve such a shallow and deceitful leader like Zehava Galon. In any case, every lie by Zehava Galon against me and Yisrael Beiteinu is a big compliment.”

 

 

 

Armenia manages to conduct policy of restraint to ensure that the fluctuations of foreign currency rate have minimal influence on our economy, economist Vardan Bostanjyan told reporters today.

He did not rule out that the USD exchange rate could hit 500 AMD, but said that it should be done ‘fluently.” “I’m confident the Armenian financial authorities are doing their best to avoid price pressures that exist in a number of countries,” he said.

The economist said the current situation does not provide for good conditions for exports and negatively affects the export-import ratio.

“Imports exceed exports several times, which is not good. There is no proper environment for exports,” he said.

He also pointed out the high level of our economy’s dependence on Russia, stressing that the state of the Russian ruble finds its reflection in Armenia.

AFP Photo/Ozan Kose

 

Internationally acclaimed Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk has accused the European Union of turning a blind eye to the state of democracy in Turkey because of its cooperation in the migration crisis, local media reported on Sunday, Agence France-Presse reports.

“They have forgotten all their values,” Pamuk told the Hurriyet newspaper in an interview, referring to the EU, adding that the fight against the Islamic State group and the migrant crisis had “tied Europe’s hands”.

Brussels reached an agreement with EU hopeful Turkey in November to encourage Ankara to keep refugees inside its territory, after a mass influx of migrants crossed into the EU last year, stoking tensions in several member states.

The deal also gave new momentum to Turkey’s years-long push to become a member of the EU, which had long been held up by several issues including its human rights record.

Pamuk criticised the 28-nation bloc for ignoring Turkey’s recent record in freedom of expression under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“They are looking to us as they looked to Saudi Arabia once upon a time: If (Turkey) is doing what we want, we don’t care what they do at home.”

Pamuk lamented recent developments in Turkey, including the detention of leading opposition journalists Can Dundar and Erdem Gul on charges of revealing classified information.

The two journalists with the Cumhuriyet newspaper are facing multiple life sentences on charges of revealing state secrets in a report that alleged Erdogan’s government tried to send arms into Syria.

“I am a person who says ‘let’s talk about literature only’ but it is no longer possible,” Pamuk said.

“You cannot sit and write your novel when Can Dundar is in jail.”

An advocate of Turkish membership of the EU, Pamuk said: “In democratic countries, people do not have to repeat like a parrot the opinions of the (party) that won the last election.”

The author, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006, has just completed a new novel “The Red-Haired Woman,” which will be released in Istanbul on Tuesday.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian will visit Montenegro on January 20 at the invitation of Montenegro’s Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Igor Lukšić.

Minister Nalbandian is expected to have meetings with high-ranking representatives of executive and legislative authorities of the country.

The Armenian Evangelical Emmanuel Church in Aleppo came under heavy rocket attack Sunday, hours after the morning service, the Lebanon-based Kantsasar weekly reports.

According to the source, no casualties were reported, but the church was seriously damaged.

Head of the Armenian evangelical community of Syria, Rev. Haroutioun Selimian visited the church to assess the damage.

Spain’s Princess Cristina has become the first member of the country’s royal family to be put on trial, the BBC reports.

She is charged with being an accomplice in an alleged embezzlement scam involving her husband and 16 other defendants, who all deny the charges.

Princess Cristina, 50, faces eight years in jail if found guilty by a three-member panel of judges.

The trial in Palma, Majorca, is seen as an embarrassment for the royal family.

Princess Cristina arrived at the court in Palma on Monday with her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, who is accused of embezzlement and money laundering.

They made no statement to reporters. A small group of anti-monarchists protested outside.

Kuwait has announced it is recalling its ambassador to Iran as a regional row over the execution of a Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia deepens, the BBC reports.

Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran was ransacked and set alight on Saturday, after it executed Shia Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others.

Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic ties with Iran in response, followed on Monday by its allies Bahrain and Sudan.

The US, UN and Turkey are among those calling for calm in the region.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran are major rivals for power in the Middle East and back opposing sides in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen.

Kuwait’s announcement, which was carried on the state-run Kuwait News Agency, did not explain exactly how Kuwait-Iran diplomatic relations would be affected, reports said.