Epress.am — No one from outside can force Armenia, Azerbaijan or Turkey to take this or that step. These countries have to sit together and resolve their problem, said former US Ambassador to Armenia John Marshall Evans today at the “Assessing Independence in Armenia and the Region” public forum organized by the Civilitas Foundation.
“As you know we often have difficult relations with Turkey, as, for example, in the war with Iraq, Turkey refused to get troops into Iraq. Thus, America can’t force, it can support processes through different formats, but resolving the conflict is the problem of those countries,” he said.
German Ambassador to Armenia Hans-Jochen Schmidt, also speaking on the panel, likewise emphasized that the “outside world” cannot force a decision.
“The EU also takes steps in the issue of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as the normalization of relations with Turkey, but they can’t force anything,” he said.
Schmidt said the most important step in Armenia-Turkey relations is the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, after which discussions on other issues will begin.
“What’s important is that the parties understand that by establishing diplomatic relations, no one is doing anyone a favor; it is a normal process,” he said.
via ArmeniaDiaspora.com – News from Armenia, Events in Armenia, Travel and Entertainment | No One Can Force Armenia or Turkey, Insist Ambassadors in Armenia.
Turkey compiles list of 174 Israelis, topped by Prime Minister Netanyahu, who were directly or indirectly involved in 2010 raid on Gaza-bound ship. Intelligence officials used social networks to track down participants, Sabah newspaper reports
Turkish intelligence officials have submitted to the state prosecution a list of 174 Israelis, mostly soldiers, who were involved in the 2010 raid on the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara ship, the Turkish newspaper Sabah reported Monday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tops the list as the “primary responsible party.”
According to the report, the Israelis were identified from photographs and various media sources.
“Almost all of the Israeli soldiers who killed nine Turkish citizens and injured 30 others have been identified,” the report claimed.
It was stated that Israel’s government has not responded to the Turkish Justice Ministry’s demand to release a list of the individuals who took part in the operation, prompting the intelligence officials to pour over records of the raid. Facebook and Twitter were used later in the hunt for information.
The fact-finding team examined the names of the commandos ofShayetet 13 – the Navy unit that took over the Gaza-bound vessel – and matched them up with the numerous photos used in the media.
Furthermore, the officials reviewed correspondence written by soldiers whom they believed took part in the raid in order to confirm their participation. Names submitted by the IHHmovement, which organized the flotilla, were used in the search as well.
Lieberman, Barak also on list
According to the report, the Turkish prosecution intends to request the Israeli authorities to verify whether the people on the list, which includes 140 photos of 174 Israelis who directly or indirectly participated in the raid, were indeed ivolved.
Officials who allegedly contributed to the decision and issued the order to stop the Mavi Marmara, including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, made it to the top of the list as well.
“All of the Israeli Cabinet ministers were responsible for the order,” the report read.
The list also includes former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, former Israel Navy Commander Eliezer Marom, former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin and a variety of other high- and low-ranking officers. Moreover, it includes 10 photographs of soldiers who are yet to be identified.
Drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading at an “alarming rate” in Europe, the World Health Organization said as it introduced a plan to fight the disease that may save 120,000 lives and as much as $12 billion.
Reported cases of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in the region tripled in 2009 from 2008 levels, and the six countries with the world’s highest rates of patients with the most dangerous drug-evading form are all in Europe, the WHO said in a statement yesterday.
The London borough of Brent, home to Wembley Stadium and the headquarters of brewer Diageo Plc, has become western Europe’s tuberculosis capital, with more new cases each year than Karonga district in Malawi, a rural area still battling leprosy, according to the U.K.’s Health Protection Agency.
“This problem is a man-made phenomenon resulting from inadequate treatment or poor airborne infection control,” Hans Kluge, a special representative on drug-resistant tuberculosis in the WHO’s European region, said in the statement. “We need wide involvement to tackle the damage that humankind has done.”
European nations aim to diagnose at least 85 percent of patients with multidrug-resistant TB in Europe, and treat at least 75 percent of them by 2015, the Geneva-based WHO said. They will commit to national action plans that include dedicated facilities and improved public awareness, according to the agency. Of about 81,000 cases in 2009, the WHO estimates 34 percent were diagnosed and 22 percent were treated adequately.
Achieving the goals may prevent as many as 263,000 cases of drug-resistant TB, saving 120,000 lives and $5 billion in lost productivity. A further $7 billion may be saved by averting future cases, the WHO said.
Ynet’s Washington reporter, Yitzhak Ben – Horin, produced last night a clear and succinct reading of Obama’s recent UN General Assembly address:
“Likudnic in the White House.”
“Netanyahu could not have written it better.”
“Obama at this point, is in line with the Likud party.”
“Obama is a pro-Israel president …Since January 2009, he provided Israel with all its needs both in diplomacy and in terms of security”
Obama is not performing too well in the polls. He clearly needs the Jewish Lobby on his side. The American president ‘provided’ yesterday and the lobby was quick to react- “Israel has no better friend in the world today,” wrote the president of the National Council of Jewish Democrats, David Harris.
According to Ynet, hours before his UN General Assembly Address Obama sought to ensure that prospective Jewish voters pay close attention to his speech.
“Three of Obama’s aides held a conference call with the president’s Jewish supporters and community leaders. The advisers, all Jewish themselves, asked the supporters to “spread the word” that Obama will give a pro-Israel speech which reflects his own genuine positions and implored them to pay close attention to the president’s UN address.”
The three Jewish advisers “stressed that the Republicans intentionally distort Obama’s statements to portray him as an anti-Israel president, when in fact their arguments are baseless.”
If anyone was foolish enough to believe that America could ever be a broker for peace in the Middle East, the truth is now unavoidable. American political world is clearly hijacked by a foreign lobby that represents foreign interests. America cannot rescue itself. What we see in front of our eyes is basically a tragedy.
Greek tragedy depicts the downfall of a noble hero, usually through some combination of hubris, fate, and the will of the gods. The American tragedy contains the same elements. America has regarded itself as a ‘noble hero’ since its creation, ‘hubris’ is also far from being foreign to American culture. Americas’ fate has been written on the wall for more than a while. And what about the Gods, can you guess who the Gods are? I think that Obama and his party knew very well whom they were trying to appease last night. They know very well who their Gods are because they shamelessly mix with them at least once a year at AIPAC annual gathering.
However, Obama and his ‘advisers’ maybe mistaken here. Their ‘Gods’ are not stupid at all, they grasp what Obama is up to, Ben Horin wrote last night, they understand what ‘2nd term’ means in terms of Israeli politics. They remember, for instance, that during the election campaign in 2000, George Bush promised to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but once re-elected he was the man who pushed Sharon to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. They remember that the same George Bush was also the president who sided with Abu Mazen, and declared that negotiations with the Palestinians should be based on49 armistice lines.
If Obama thinks that the ‘Gods’ are now beside him, he is deluded.
Obama made a grave personal mistake yesterday. But it is Americans, Israelis and Palestinians that will pay the price. What we see here is a classic tragedy, for America doesn’t posses the political power to save itself from itself.
The only question you may want to ask yourself at this stage is how long will it take for America to emancipate itself from its ‘Gods’.
New York police accused of heavy-handed tactics as 80 anti-capitalist protesters on ‘Occupy Wall Street’ march are arrested
The Occupy Wall Street protests. Photograph: Tina Fineberg/AP
The anti-capitalist protests that have become something of a fixture in Lower Manhattan over the past week or so have taken on a distinctly ugly turn.
Police have been accused of heavy-handed tactics after making 80 arrests on Saturday when protesters marched uptown from their makeshift camp in a private park in the financial district.
Footage has emerged on YouTube showing stocky police officers coralling a group of young female protesters and then spraying them with mace, despite being surrounded and apparently posing threats of only the verbal kind.
YouTube footage of protesters being pepper-sprayed
NYPD officers strung orange netting across the streets to trap groups of protesters, a tactic described by some of them as “kettling” – a term more commonly used by critics of a similar tactic deployed by police in London to contain potentially violent demonstrations there.
The media here in New York has been accused of being slow off the mark to cover the demonstrations, which have been going on for more than a week.
Here are some links to our coverage over the past week.
• This is a gallery of photographs taken by John Stuttle last weekend.
• Karen McVeigh visited the camp in Zuccotti Park on Monday
• Later in the week, Paul Harris recorded video interviews with some of the protesters.
Now, however, the local media has paid more attention – almost certainly because Saturday’s protest became disruptive, bringing chaos to the busy Union Square area and forcing the closure of streets.
The New York Times quoted one protester, Kelly Brannon, 27, of Ridgewood, Queens:
They put up orange nets and tried to kettle us and we started running and they started tackling random people and handcuffing them. They were herding us like cattle.
The scenes are showing signs of attracting high-profile criticism. Anne-Marie Slaughter, who was director of policy planning, at the State Department from 2009 to 2011, said on Twitter: “Not the image or reality the US wants, at home or abroad,” linking to a picture of a police officer kneeling on a protester pinned to the ground.
Here’s an extract from a Reuters report, which said the demonstrators were protesting against “bank bailouts, the mortgage crisis and the US state of Georgia’s execution of Troy Davis”.
At Manhattan’s Union Square, police tried to corral the demonstrators using orange plastic netting. Some of the arrests were filmed and activists posted the videos online.
Police say the arrests were mostly for blocking traffic. Charges include disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. But one demonstrator was charged with assaulting a police officer. Police say the officer involved suffered a shoulder injury.
Protest spokesman Patrick Bruner criticized the police response as “exceedingly violent” and said the protesters sought to remain peaceful
And this is a fuller take from Associated Press.
The marchers carried signs spelling out their goals: “Tax the rich,” one placard said. “We Want Money for Healthcare not Corporate Welfare,” read another.
The demonstrators were mostly college-age people carrying American flags and signs with anti-corporate slogans. Some beat drums, blew horns and chanted slogans as uniformed officers surrounded and videotaped them.
“Occupy Wall Street,” they chanted, “all day, all week.”
Organizers fell short of that goal. With metal barricades and swarms of police officers in front of the New York Stock Exchange, the closest protesters could get was Liberty Street, about three blocks away.
The Vancouver-based activist media group Adbusters organized the weeklong event. Word spread via social media, yet the throngs of protesters some participants had hoped for failed to show up.
“I was kind of disappointed with the turnout,” said Itamar Lilienthal, 19, a New York University student and marcher.
Update: 11.30am ET Sunday
In the comments, there has been some debate about my description of the protesters as “anti-capitalist”. Some commenters say this description is inaccurate.
Here’s a typical comment, from kismequik:
The Occupy Wall Street protest isn’t anti-capitalist – it’s anti-unregulated capitalism.
And another, from NatalieNY:
I am disappointed to find you referring to this protest as anti-capitalist which has a negative and alienating connotation, and which is a dangerously false label.
This is about our broken system and taking our government back to a place of being about and for the people, not corporate interests.
Other commenters point out more media coverage today, including a front-page piece in the New York Daily News.
“As you know we often have difficult relations with Turkey, as, for example, in the war with Iraq, Turkey refused to get troops into Iraq. Thus, America can’t force, it can support processes through different formats, but resolving the conflict is the problem of those countries,” he said.
