Author: Vatche Chakhmakhchian

Maria Sharapova has been banned for two years by the International Tennis Federation for using a prohibited drug, the BBC reports.

The Russian was provisionally banned in March after testing positive for meldonium at January’s Australian Open.

The heart disease drug, which 29-year-old Sharapova says she has been taking since 2006 for health issues, became a banned substance on 1 January 2016.

The five-time Grand Slam winner said she “cannot accept” the “unfairly harsh” ban – and will appeal.

Sharapova will challenge the suspension, which is backdated to 26 January 2016, at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

 

 

 

The reports on the Vienna meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan are positive, US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills told reporters today. According to him, the parties’ commitment to the 1994-1995 ceasefire agreements is the greatest achievement.

“The agreement on the implementation of a mechanism of investigation of ceasefire violations along the line of contact is an expression of goodwill. The agreement to meet for another round of talks in June is also inspiring,” the Ambassador said.

“The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, the government of my country are hopeful that the meeting will produce positive results and will lead to what we all want – comprehensive settlement of the Karabakh issue,” Richard Mills said.

Some 300 people gathered on Saturday in St. James Monastery in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem and held a ceremony commemorating 101 years to the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, the reports.

The ceremony was held after a mass that was led by Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Nourhan Manougian, and was attended by the leaders of Armenian community in Jerusalem. The service honored the memory of some 1.5 million Armenian victims whom Ottoman forces killed between 1915 and 1923, mainly in Syria.

Commemorative events will be held throughout the world this year under the shadow of the ongoing violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Dozens have been killed so far in clashes that started earlier this month.

Harut Baghamian, one of the organizers of the ceremony, a member of the Homenetmen youth movement and a descendant of Armenian Genocide refugees, told The Jerusalem Post that the Armenian community is disappointed from the way Israel deals with the memory of the genocide. “It’s not that they are denying like some countries, they are just not talking about it,” he said.

However, Baghamian sees in the Jewish people a partner of the Armenians. “There were some Israeli politicians that have expressed their feelings about the genocide in the past, and we appreciate that.

But we expect from the government to honor their values before politics,” he said.

“We understand that this is a political issue. We receive a broad support from the Israeli public. There is much resemblance between the Armenians and the Jews all throughout the history, hence we expect from the Jewish state to be the first to acknowledge and to speak out about the issue. The Armenians know about the horrors of the Jewish Holocaust so we hope that the Israeli government will act the same.”

On Sunday, members of the Armenian community and social activists will protest in front of the Turkish Consulate in Jerusalem and the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Leading Assyrian Christian organizations have collectively penned an open letter to the five remaining U.S. presidential candidates, urging them to fight against radical terror groups and to recognize the past genocide that Christians have suffered under the Ottoman Empire, according to

, addressed to Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump, states that Assyrian Christians are being “tortured, kidnapped, raped and murdered by radical terrorist organizations such as ISIS.”

“We have seen this terror in Paris, Brussels, and other cities around the world, committed in the name of Islam by radical Islamic organizations. For Assyrians it feels like 1915 all over again,” the groups write, referencing the ethnic and religious cleansing carried out by the Ottoman Empire, present-day Turkey, between 1915-1924, when 750,000 Assyrians, 500,000 Greeks and 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives.

“One hundred years have passed since the era of World War I when no one heard the cries of our ancestors, the Assyrian people, in their suffering in that genocide that is known as the Armenian Genocide,” the letter reads.

“26 countries have recognized the Armenian Genocide. 12 countries, governments and institutions have recognized the Assyrian genocide. Turkey, however, continues to deny the genocide,” the Assyrian organizations pointed out.

Assyrian organizations that are listed as signers of the letter are: Assyrian Genocide and Research, Federation des Assyriens de Belgique, Institut Syriaque de Belgique, Sefyo Center Belgium, Assyrian Universal Alliance Americas Chapter, Restore Nineveh Now Foundation, American Mesopotamian Organization, Institut Assyrien de Belgique, Central Union of Assyrian Associations in Germany and European sections, Assyrian Democratic Organization, and Assyrian Chaldean Syriac Student Union of Canada.

The mass genocide of Christians marked its 100th year anniversary on April 24, 2015, bringing together world leaders to Yerevan, Armenia, to pay their respects to the dead.

“I bow down in memory of the victims and I come to tell my Armenian friends that we will never forget the tragedies that your people has endured,” said French President Francois Hollande.

President Barack Obama faced criticism from Armenian-American activists, however, when he failed to refer to the 1915 massacre as a genocide last year.

“The president’s surrender represents a national disgrace,” said Aram S. Hamparian, executive director of the Washington-based Armenian National Committee of America, at the time. “It is a betrayal of the truth, and it is a betrayal of trust.”

Although Obama had promised during his election campaign in 2008 that he would use the word, the White House later clarified that it does not want to sour its relations with Turkey, a NATO-partner.

In their letter, the Assyrian leaders reminded the presidential candidates that Secretary of State John Kerry has designated the ongoing massacre of Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria as a genocide.

“As President of the United States, would you do everything in your power to end these atrocities, bring the perpetrators to justice, and aid the survivors?” the Assyrian groups asked in the letter.

“As President of the United States, would you acknowledge the Ottoman Genocide against Christians – Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks – during World War I and support reparations for the victims?” they added.

“It is our hope that as President you would aid the victims of genocide, both past and present, and bring relief to their suffering.”

The military aggression against the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, unleashed by Azerbaijan in the early hours of April 2, was accompanied by war crimes, flagrant violations of the laws and customs of war, as well as norms of international humanitarian law, the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

On April 2, as a result of the deliberate artillery shelling of civilian settlements, a 12-year-old boy, Vagharshak Grigoryan, was killed, and two other kids were wounded near the secondary school in the NKR Martuni region. In the village of Talish of the NKR Martakert region, three elderly members of the Khalapyan family, the eldest of whom was 92 years old, were brutally killed and mutilated by an Azerbaijani subversive group. Traces of torture and mutilation were also registered on the bodies of the deceased servicemen of the NKR Defense Army, transferred to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic by Azerbaijan on April 10.

This is not the complete list of the war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani army during the military aggression against the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. Grossly violating the norms of international humanitarian law Azerbaijan poses itself against the entire civilized world by openly challenging it.

In accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law, in particular, Article 1 of all Geneva Conventions, the High Contracting Parties undertook the obligation not only “to respect” the norms of the Conventions, but also “to ensure respect” in all circumstances.

The Nagorno Karabakh Republic is taking steps to provide the international community, including the specialized agencies, with  these egregious facts of inhuman acts committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces and will consistently seek to ensure not only the strongest condemnation of these crimes, but also holding the perpetrators accountable. There can be no justification for such acts committed by Azerbaijan.

– Turkey has been making drastic decisions in different towns of the majority Kurdish southeast in the past few weeks. On March 21, Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government hastily passed legislation referred to as “urgent expropriation of the Sur district” of Diyarbakir province. On March 26, the government’s Official Gazette announced all the addresses of the properties to be expropriated.

These decisions have been met with local opposition, which has been silenced swiftly. But the Sur situation generated global reactions because of the town’s history — so much so that Galip Ensarioglu, a prominent AKP parliamentarian, told the press that the US Embassy had called him asking about the reports. Ensarioglu said the reports amounted to a smear campaign spreading false information about the confiscation process. Others beg to differ.

Indeed, the story of Sur evolves around historic churches and citadels of the town, which are on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Months of fighting with the Kurdistan Workers Party have left the region in ruins, and ambiguous government statements furthered the frustration of civilians who were obliged to leave their homes. One of the concerned groups is Armenian. About 110 years ago, the region’s population distribution shows Sur was an Armenian majority town.

As aerial images of Sur expropriations started circulating on social media, Armenians all around the world became concerned, particularly about one church that was reopened only in 2011. Soon it became clear that several inalienable religious endowment properties, or waqf, along with the largest Armenian Church, St. Giragos Armenian Apostolic Church, were included on the list. About 82% of the district is estimated to have been expropriated by the government.

Raffi Bedrosyan, a Canadian-Armenian civil engineer and writer who was involved in the reconstruction of St. Giragos, spoke to Al-Monitor about its significance. According to Bedrosyan, St. Giragos is the largest Armenian church in the Middle East. “It dates back to the 14th century, and with several expansions, it served the large Armenian community of 100,000 in Diyarbakir until 1915,” he said.

After the Armenians were forced to leave the city, the church was made to serve different purposes, from an army barracks to a warehouse. Constant attempts to keep it functioning as a church were futile until a waqf foundation was able to reclaim the property.

“In 2009, a newly formed church charitable foundation showed the courage and determination to start reconstruction of [St.] Giragos. With organized fundraising from the Armenian community in Istanbul and worldwide Armenian diasporas, as well as some contribution from the local Kurdish municipal leaders, the church was renovated and opened in 2011, and more than 4,000 people attended,” Bedrosyan said.

He added, “It soon became a spiritual and cultural center for Armenian pilgrims from the diaspora and a meeting place for thousands and thousands of hidden Armenians living in the region, who are the descendants of 1915 orphaned Armenian girls and boys [who were] forcibly Islamized, Kurdified and Turkified. The [St.] Giragos Church Foundation also succeeded in having several properties … restored to church ownership.”

In 2012, Bedrosyan gave a memorable piano concert at the church. The church became a catalyst, bringing Christians and descendants of Armenians from all around the world to Sur, and it also served as a spiritual refuge for hundreds of Islamized Armenian survivors.

Aline Ozinian is a regional analyst for the Armenian Assembly of America and a correspondent for Agos, an Armenian daily published in Turkey. She described for Al-Monitor how the news of expropriation resonated among Armenians.

“First and foremost, it caused a loss of trust of the government. In the early years of the AKP, there was hope for a fresh start because the AKP appeared to be embracing the rhetoric of religious freedom. During the reconstruction process of [St.] Giragos, there was hope that, as citizens of Turkey, Armenians would have an achievement,” Ozinian said. “Yet with this expropriation decision, it is confirmed that this was a cheap illusion. The police mentality that yells at the Kurds ‘You are all Armenians’ has now been institutionalized. The expropriation of [St.] Giragos symbolizes a punishment for both Kurds and Armenians. It is highly probable that the AKP is punishing Armenians, as some Armenians have voted for the pro-Kurdish HDP [Peoples’ Democratic Party].”

The AKP has repeatedly denied expropriating churches. Ensarioglu vehemently rejected expropriation of any of the churches, saying, “We are only here to repair the churches and give them back to the waqfs.” Yet none of the locals seemed convinced by his statements. As the pressure built, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Sur on April 1.

Ozinian said, “Davutoglu’s first task at Sur was to pray at a mosque. This was a message. The church had rejuvenated the Islamized Armenians in the region, encouraging them to investigate their histories. It seems the Turkish government, intolerant toward differences, will resolve all problems by expropriating the church.”

She also emphasized the sudden turn in Turkish press coverage. “During the reconstruction process of the church from 2009 to 2011, the press coverage was extensive. The church was portrayed as a monument of ‘the AKP’s tolerance,’ yet the expropriation news barely made it into the mainstream media, and not to the headlines at all. In 1915, hatred removed and cleansed the Armenians from Sur, and now I fear a similar destiny awaits the Kurds.”

Indeed, Ozinian’s concerns have been repeated by several columnists from the region who say they fear the government plans to empty the region of Kurds and settle Syrian refugees as a buffer zone between Kurdish areas. Another concern is the greed factor. The AKP has prepared a video showing what the future of the historic Sur district would look like. Davutoglu likened it to the reconstructed city of Toledo, Spain. “I told my wife, we should own a house in Sur as well,” he added.

Locals were not satisfied with his words, as prominent columnist Nurcan Baysal penned a searing column titled “Take Toledo for yourself and leave Sur alone.” Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the HDP, had already submitted an inquiry about the ancient church and has been seeking to halt its expropriation.

Many believe this move by the AKP is another lucrative gentrification project for construction companies belonging to AKP cronies. In the midst of all this, the country’s biggest Armenian church appears to have met the same destiny as dozens of others in the region — it has become collateral damage.

On 7 April Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov (Russian Federation), Pierre Andrieu (France), James Warlick (USA), personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.

The meeting addressed issues related to the large-scale military operations launched Azerbaijan against the Artsakh Republic.
President Sahakyan called the treacherous aggression of Azerbaijani as one of the greatest perils to stability and peace in the South Caucasus and the neighboring regions, qualifying it a serious challenge to the civilized world too.

Bako Sahakyan underlined that the Artsakh Defense Army averted and would always rebuff any encroachment on our republic’s independence, sovereignty and security, adding that he expected from OSCE Minsk Group tough and targeted response and steps towards the destructive policy of Azerbaijan.

The Federal Member for Bennelong, John Alexander, has released a statement condemning Azerbaijan’s aggression towards the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and the targeting of innocent civilian lives.

“I deplore the recent acts of aggression committed by the Azerbaijan military against ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, with reports of civilians being targeted including the shelling of a school in the Martuni region that resulted in the death of a 12 year old boy and the serious injury of two other children,” Alexander said.

Alexander has spoken in Parliament on several occasions regarding the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, and reiterated in his statement that it is an Armenian-populated Republic with people who “enjoy a democratic system of government, a commitment to human rights and a free press that lies in start contrast to their closest neighbour”.

In his statement, Alexander reminds us that this year would mark the 25^th Anniversary of Independence for the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, the 28^th Anniversary of the Sumgait Pogroms, and the 101^st Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

While slamming Azerbaijan’s aggression, Alexander also condemned the Turkish government’s recent seizure of Armenian, Assyrian and Chaldean Churches in the Diyarbakir region.

In regards to Azerbaijan’s aggression and Turkey’s expropriation, Alexander said: “These historical events remain supremely relevant to Armenian people in Yerevan, Artsakh, Sur and across the globe.”

ANC Australia Executive Administrator Arin Markarian said: “We thank Mr. Alexander for this highly commendable statement during these tough times. Again, his strong stance and voice has shown why he is a great advocate for human rights issues, and a great friend of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

“It is very important that other MPs and Senators join in a united effort to condemn the violent aggression that Azerbaijan has initiated against the Armenians of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, and Mr. Alexander has done himself well to lead the way on bringing awareness to this issue in Australia.”

 

 

 

Instead of chiding aggressor Azerbaijan, the German Foreign Minister is issuing blurred statements, President of the Union of Armenian Academicians of Germany Azat Ordukhanyan said, speaking to . He said the German press is also working unprofessionally.

“No German media outlets work on the ground. They all report about the situation referring to German agencies, present copied texts. Although the reports are not anti-Armenian, they blame ‘both sides,’ which is unfair and non-professional,” he said.

“The German Armenians are in a fighting spirit. If things continue this way, we’ll not leave the Azerbaijani and Turkish Embassies and Consulates calm. We’ll give a worthy response, at least on a local level. They should be held accountable for the life of every Armenian young man lost,” Ordukhanyan said.

He said Turkish President Erdona’s statement should also be criticized. “Turks must be aware that if they intend to stand by Azerbaijan, the 10-million Armenian Diaspora is ready to support brothers in Armenia and Artsakh.”

Moscow hopes that the OSCE Minsk Group’s call for cessation of hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region will help normalize the situation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday, Sputnik News reports.