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A Russian military official has apologized after Russian soldiers carried out unannounced exercises in the Armenian village of Panik on July 17. 30 Russian soldiers blocked off the roads in the village after which a column of military vehicles passed through accompanied by loud gunfire, as documented by local residents: “Everyone immediately ran out of their houses after these sounds, there were even children who fainted,” one local, Vardan Makeyan, told the news website Aravot. “It's insulting that no one warned us that there would be military exercises on the territory of our town.” The soldiers were from Russia's 102nd...

As a girl, my grandmother saw many members of her family killed when Turkey tried to destroy its population of Christian Armenians around the time of WWI. She emigrated to the US soon after, thinking she’d never see a free and independent Armenia. So it has always seemed like a miracle to me that, despite a genocide that wiped out 1.5 million Armenians — 80 percent of the population — they still managed to carve out their own turf in 1918, a small country bordering Turkey and Iran. Although the republic fell to Soviet invasion in 1920, it sprang back...

Muslim Cleric: Armenian Genocide A Lie Fabricated By The British, The Muslims Never Perpetrated A Racial Massacre.(Full title). Genocide denial. Criminal when non-Muslims do it, tolerated even venerated when Muslims do it. So it stands to reason that the Armenian genocide of millions of Christians by Muslims has not been designated as such by so many Western countries. ... Egyptian Cleric Sheikh Sharif Abadi: The Armenian Genocide Is A Lie Fabricated By The British, The Muslims Never Perpetrated A Racial Massacre ... Egyptian cleric Sheikh Sharif Abadi said that throughout history, the Muslims never fought peoples, never conquered in order...

On the surface, the show of people power in this former Soviet state has striking similarities to the ouster of pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine in 2014, or Eduard Shevardnadze in Georgia in 2003. There are differences, however, argues Moscow-based political analyst Karine Gevorgyan. “In Armenia, in particular, this situation is not linked with being oriented either to the West or to the East, like it was in Ukraine, but with being tired of inefficient, counterproductive power in government,” Gevorgyan told VOA in an interview. No Moscow puppet Anahit Shirinyan of the policy institute Chatham House agrees and says...

Armenia has been in the grips of a mass public protest movement since early April, when opposition leader and member of parliament Nikol Pashinyan launched street demonstrations and strikes in cities all over the country against former president Serzh Sargsyan’s attempt to be named the next prime minister. But after Sargsyan stepped aside, the acting prime minister, Karen Karapetyan (a former chief executive of Gazprom’s fully owned Armenian subsidiary, who has long surrounded himself with support from Russian oligarchs), refused to accept the conditions of a peaceful transition of power to the opposition. To reinforce these counterrevolutionary measures, Samvel Karapetyan...

US coalition jets hit attacking forces believed to include Iranian-backed militias operating in Deir Ezzor area: Diplomat US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they expelled Syrian troops who briefly took control of a string of villages in oil rich areas east of the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border on Sunday.SDF forces led by the Kurdish YPG militia said they launched a counter-attack against Syrian troops backed by Russian forces, adding they were driven "far away" from four villages they had seized earlier in the day."Our forces regained the initiative," they said in a statement.It did not say if the...

Today, we remember and honor the memory of those who suffered during the Meds Yeghern, one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century.  Beginning in 1915, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.  I join the Armenian community in America and around the world in mourning the loss of innocent lives and the suffering endured by so many. As we reflect on this dark chapter of human history, we also recognize the resilience of the Armenian people.  Many built new lives in the United...

US President Donald Trump (File photo). Turkey’s Foreign Ministry has slammed comments made by US President Donald Trump on the 102. anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, saying it contained “misinformation and false definitions”.Speaking at a commemoration event on Monday, Donald Trump, using the Armenian term – Meds Yeghern – for the genocide said it was “one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century.”“We must remember atrocities to prevent them from occurring again. We welcome the efforts of Turks and Armenians to acknowledge and reckon with painful history, which is a critical step toward building a foundation for a...

The Turkish foreign ministry has issued a rebuttal of U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement on the Armenian genocide. “We reject the inaccurate expressions and the subjective interpretation of history in the written statement by Mr. Donald Trump, President of the USA, released on 24 April 2018 regarding the events of 1915,” it said. “In this context, we remind President Trump that during the same period more than 500.000 Muslims were slaughtered as a result of the events in which Armenian insurgents took part.” It said that Turkey was offering to establish a Joint Historical Commission to research the historical period,...

Yes, until World War II, the Medz Yeghern of 1915 was unprecedented not only in the history of our people, but in the entirety of humankind. An entire people, an entire nation coming from the depths of millennia was killed, was dying.We condemn genocide [genotsid] or zhoghovrtasbanutiun with all our heart and soul.There is and there cannot be either juridical justification or any motion of prescription for genocide.Genocide, be it the horrifying slaughter of Armenians in Der or in the banks of the Euphrates in 1915, or the torturing death by massacre of the other peoples during World War II...

The ceremony to be held at Sultanahmet Square in Ä°stanbul today (April 24) to commemorate the ones who lost their lives in the Armenian Genocide of April 24, 1915 was cancelled. The commemoration ceremony would be held by Human Rights Association (Ä°HD) Ä°stanbul Branch, Commission Against Racism and Discrimination and the European Grassroots Antiracist Movement (EGAM) at 12 p.m. Ä°stanbul Governorship's request that the word "genocide" be removed from the statement to be read out during the commemoration was announced as the reason for the cancellation of the ceremony. Three people have been detained Three members of the Ä°HD, Jihan...

If President Trump recognizes the Armenian genocide by specifically using the word “genocide” in his April 24 proclamation, he would send a strong signal to the world that America is unequivocally on the side of historical truth and the protection of innocent life. He would be only the second president, after Ronald Reagan, to do so boldly and officially. Every year on April 24 there are memorial services, marches, and media reminders of the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. The beginning of the massacres is marked on that date in 1915, when hundreds...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to recognize the mass murders of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman government in 1915 as genocide. In the past, the Foreign Ministry had assessed that such a move was likely to lead to the expulsion of Israeli Embassy staff in Ankara and the recalling of TurkeyÂ’s ambassador from Israel. While Turkey denies that the mass killings constitute genocide, some 29 countries and 48 of the 50 U.S. states have officially recognized them as such. ErdanÂ’s call to recognize the Armenian genocide follows a war of words between Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, in...

A mother looking for her 14-year-old girl who was abducted in Afrin under invasion, stated that dozens of girls are held captive and raped by Turkish forces and allied gangs. The Turkish state and gangs are committing a war crime against women and girls in Afrin which is under their invasion. A mother who revealed the savagery while looking for her 14-year-old missing girl says; “What was done in Shengal is being done here now. The whole world must see this vileness.” Invasion attacks of the Turkish state and jihadist gangs derived from ISIS and Al-Qaeda against Afrin Canton of...

The Egyptian Parliament issued a warning that methods of annihilation and exile Turkey utilizes in Afrin are reminiscent of the Armenian Genocide. The Egyptian Parliamentary committee on the matters of Arab countries issued a statement and stressed that the invasion of Afrin is “an ethnic cleansing”. The statement warned against an ethnic cleansing against Kurds in Rojava and Southern Kurdistan and stressed that Turkey’s attacks against Afrin and Shengal are attacks against the independence of Syria and Iraq. The statement also pointed out the massacres and exile involved in the invasion of Afrin and said the events are reminiscent of...

Geneva Canton Court has approved the building of an Armenian Genocide Monument. The monument will be opened on the 103rd anniversary of the genocide. The Geneva Canton Court has said the final word on the discussions on the monument the public wanted to erect in Geneva for years to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide, but were prevented by Turkey’s diplomatic pressure. The court ruled that the appeals to prevent the building of the monument are baseless and that the monument can be erected inside the Trembley Park in Geneva. The monument project prepared by Parisian Armenian Melik Ohanyan...

The PKK threatens to move the battle into Turkey, saying that the battle of Afrin is the beginning real revolution Kurdistan in Turkey and calls Kurdish youth to join the resistance against the Turkish occupation army in every a place.

WASHINGTON—The Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) and the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) have launched a national advocacy campaign encouraging U.S. Senators to block a planned sale of U.S. F-35 stealth fighters to Turkey’s increasingly erratic and anti-American Erdogan regime. The ANCA and Hellenic American Leadership Council have joined forces to launch a grassroots campaign to block the impending F-35 sale to Turkey (Graphic: ANCA) This joint Hellenic-Armenian American initiative – the most recent in a series of ANCA-HALC advocacy campaigns – warns Senators against the dangers of providing Erdogan with advanced weapons that he may turn against our...

One pilot in serious condition * Israel attacks Syrian, Iranian targets in fresh strike * Rocket sirens sound throughout northern Israel An Israeli F-16 was downed Saturday morning after Israel intercepted an Iranian drone launched from Syria into Israeli territory. According to the Israeli army, Syrian anti-aircraft missiles targeted the jet after Israel responded to the infiltration of the drone with a strike in Syria. The two F-16 pilots ejected as the plane went down in northern Israel. The pilots were taken to the hospital in stable condition. One of the pilots is in serious condition. Following the downing of...

How Putin is Winning and Losing Syria No one is in Syria because of ISIS. October 8, 2015 Daniel Greenfield    Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. The Russian line is that they’re in Syria to fight ISIS. But the Russians, like the Turks, Iranians and Europeans, don’t care about ISIS. By declaring itself a Caliphate, ISIS made itself non-aligned. The fighting in Syria isn’t about ISIS. It predated the rise of ISIS as a major player. It’s about Syria. ISIS has become a convenient excuse for...