Tag: Nagorno-Karabakh

  • Genocide, Karabakh issues cause fresh round of ‘diplomatic boxing’ between Yerevana and Ankara

    Genocide, Karabakh issues cause fresh round of ‘diplomatic boxing’ between Yerevana and Ankara

    By Naira Hayrumyan
    ArmeniaNow correspondent

    armenia turkeyA real “diplomatic boxing” match has started between Armenia and Turkey, and while formally the reason was the latest statement by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, it seems that Turkey is simply nervous because of growing international pressure.

    Meeting with some senior representatives of the Armenian community in the French city of Marseilles on December 7, President Sargsyan said: “One day the Turkish leadership will find the strength to reconsider its approaches towards the Armenian Genocide… Sooner or later Turkey, which considers itself a European country, will have leadership which will bow at Tsitsernakaberd.”

    The statement caused a stormy reaction from Turkey.

    Chairman of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Cemal Cicek said that “the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations entirely depends on the solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.” Speaking at an event in Ankara commemorating Azerbaijan’s late leader Heydar Aliyev on December 12, Cicek accused the president of Armenia of organizing the “Khojalu tragedy” in Karabakh in 1992 in which Azerbaijan claims the Armenian military killed Azeri civilians – an accusation strongly denied by Armenians. “We all know who Serzh Sargsyan is. He is one of the authors of the Khojalu genocide,” Turkish media quoted Cicek as saying.

    For his part, Turkish State Minister for EU Affairs Egemen Bagis said that Sargsyan went beyond the limits by making that statement. He stressed that the Armenian people cannot be strong “due to poverty and hunger”. As quoted by the Turkish Anadolu news agency, Bagis said that some Armenians were working in Turkey which showed “the sincerity of Turks.”

    An official response came from Armenia. Commenting on Turkey’s EU affairs minister, Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said: “Such a response from the mouth of an official responsible for the integration of Turkey into the European Union proves that today’s Turkey does not yet have the leadership befitting a European country, and some Turkish officials are not bearers of European values and espouse the mentality in the spirit of the worst traditions of the Ottoman Empire.”

    For his part, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov said that Cicek “repeated the legends of Azerbaijani propaganda about a million refugees and occupied territories.” “What a cynic one has to be to talk about occupation when your country has for decades occupied the territory of an EU member state (Cyprus)? To talk about genocide when your country has turned the denial of crimes against humanity into a state policy?!” said Sharmazanov.

    But international pressure on Turkey and at the same time on Azerbaijan seems to be gradually building up. The U.S. Senate is voting on Resolution 306, which calls on Turkey to return the confiscated Armenian, Greek and Assyrian church property.

    France’s position on Turkey’s membership in the EU has not changed, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirming that he would not approve Turkey’s entry bid.

    Also, in France a draft law criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide seems to have reached the homestretch. MPs from the French president’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party that has a parliamentary majority on December 8 submitted a bill to the legislative committee of the National Assembly aiming to criminalize the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

    And in her December 9 statement in connection with International Human Rights Day U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mentioned Azerbaijan, along with Zimbabwe, as one of the negative examples in the field of human rights and countries where there are political prisoners.

    via Armenia-Turkey: Genocide, Karabakh issues cause fresh round of ‘diplomatic boxing’ between Yerevana and Ankara – Genocide | ArmeniaNow.com.

  • No One Can Force Armenia or Turkey, Insist Ambassadors in Armenia

    No One Can Force Armenia or Turkey, Insist Ambassadors in Armenia

    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.

    Protocol1“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.

  • Azerbaijan has fewer problems with EU than Turkey

    Azerbaijan has fewer problems with EU than Turkey

    News.Az interviews Zeyno Baran, an American political scientist.

    How do you evaluate Azerbaijan’s current place in our region?

    Zeyno Baran
    Zeyno Baran

    Azerbaijan has a strategically important location and is at the crossroads between north and south, east and west, as it was said at the Baku conference on dialogue between cultures. The country showed impressive development rates in the last 10 years. It suggests that the future of the country is very promising.

    You have spoken about the international conference on intercultural dialogue, in which you have taken part. Are such events helpful in letting the world know more about Azerbaijan to draw the world’s attention to Karabakh conflict and other problems of the country?

    Yes, certainly. Any of such conferences, especially when the matter is about dialogue between cultures, between religions. Such events are helpful to Azerbaijan in showing its multireligiousness and multiculturalism to the world community.

    Do you see Azerbaijan integrated with the European community in the near future?

    If we mean EU membership, I don’t think this is the event of the nearest future. All the same, dialogue with EU is developing. Everything depends on the level of improvement of social, economic and other spheres in Azerbaijan. Especially, if Azerbaijan wants to become part of Europe, it has to share common values.

    I mean famous European Islamophobia when the point comes to Eurointegration of such Muslim countries, as Turkey and Azerbaijan. Is it true that in this sense Europe will always keep our countries aloof?

    Azerbaijan is much smaller than Turkey which is why we have fewer problems. In addition, Azerbaijan is a country with secular traditions and I don’t think in this view Azerbaijan and Turkey are the same-category countries. In addition, the case with Turkey is related to EU accession, unlike Azerbaijan.

    Leyla Tagiyeva

    News.Az

     

  • Khojali Genocide

    Khojali Genocide

    The story of Asli Mammadova – the only survivor of Mammadova family in Khojali genocide committed by Armenian and Russian armed forces on 25–26 February 1992 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

  • Protest by Azeri-US and Turkish-US community activists

    Protest by Azeri-US and Turkish-US community activists

    pic76922

    On Friday, November 19, 2010, in a first-ever Azeri-American public protest in California, a group of Azeri and Turkish community activists held a picket outside of the Pacific Club in Newport Beach, California to protest an event featuring a separatist warlord, self-proclaimed “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) President”, Bako Sahakyan, as a speaker. The event was hosted by the World Affairs Council (WAC) of Orange County and sponsored by the Consulate General of the Republic of Armenia in Los Angeles, Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), and other Armenian-American groups.

    The picketers held up slogans demanding the return and restoration of the rights of 800,000 Azerbaijanis displaced as a result of ongoing occupation and ethnic cleansing committed by Armenian forces on Azerbaijani territories. They also distributed factsheets with references on the conflict from U.S. and international sources to visitors at the event venue entrance.

    In addition, a group of 10 Azeri- and Turkish-American community activists attended the speech by Bako Sahakyan inside the Pacific Club.  Introducing the speaker was the Consul General of Armenia, Grigor Hovhannissian, who talked about the “heroic” achievements of “NKR” on a path towards self-determination. It is noteworthy, that the Republic of Armenia does not recognize the illegitimate “NKR” due to the claimed commitment to peace negotiations under the OSCE Minsk Group format. Yet high-level Armenian diplomats in the United States not only participate, but also sponsor a visit by so-called “NKR President”. Such actions manifest a clear disrespect to the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and its mediating OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.

    Taking the stage over next, Bako Sahakyan expressed his excitement over recent decision on the legality of Kosovo independence by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in his opinion, will increase prospects for “NKR” to be independent as well. Sahakyan also reiterated the necessity of including “NKR” as a party in the negotiation process, repeatedly criticizing Azerbaijan’s opposition to it.

    He failed to recall, however, that the 1992 Baker Rules (named after then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker) laid out the current OSCE peace negotiation format, with Armenia and Azerbaijan as “principal” and Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian and Azeri communities as “interested” parties to conflict.

    After the speech, during the Q&A session, Mr. Sahakyan was confronted with several questions from Azerbaijani visitors and publicly demonstrated further lack of any understanding of conflict history, settlement process, providing completely incoherent and irrelevant answers.

    Asked to comment on his authority to represent “the people of Nagorno-Karabakh”, while third of those were Azeris ethnically cleansed from their homes, Bako Sahakyan said that the engagement of Karabakh’s Azeri community is possible only if “NKR” is recognized as an equal party to the conflict.  Armenian separatist did not explain, however, what prevents him from engaging with Azeri community of Karabakh within the OSCE defined format of an “interested” party. Instead Mr. Sahakyan repeated the old counterproductive slogan that it is impossible for Karabakh to be part of Azerbaijan.

    Asked to comment on the words of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan about the 1992 Khojaly Massacre (“before Khojali, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We were able to break that [stereotype].” (Thomas de Waal. Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War, NYU Press, 2004)) – Armenian separatist warlord went on to deny the Armenian responsibility [for the massacre] already acknowledged by Human Rights Watch, Armenia’s “national hero” Monte Melkonian and even the incumbent President of Armenia. Claiming that he knows the “crux of the matter” and that Azerbaijan is using Khojaly Massacre as leverage against the recognition of “1915 Armenian Genocide”, Mr. Sahakyan failed to answer the posed question honestly and coherently.

    The real “pearl” of Bako Sahakyan speech came at the end of Q&A session, when he was asked to comment on the impact of Azerbaijan’s growing military budget on the fate of illegitimate “NKR” entity. Choking on his own invention of “Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict”, Mr. Sahakyan misfired that Armenian Armed Forces (and not so-called “NKR forces”) are ready to defend it in case of a possible war.

    During the past week, the board directors of Azerbaijani-American Council (AAC) and other Azeri-American groups addressed their concern to the World Affairs Council of Orange County with an appeal to cancel this presentation by Bako Sahakyan. We regret that the WAC-OC leadership did not listen to these recommendations, instead proceeding with an event that did not produce any useful outcome in terms of either knowledge or conflict resolution, instead focusing on repeated dissemination of ethnocentric and irredentist views of the speaker.

    http://www.today.az/news/vdiaspora/76922.html

  • MASSIVE ARMENIAN FRAUD EXPOSED … AGAIN!

    MASSIVE ARMENIAN FRAUD EXPOSED … AGAIN!

    The 33 Chilean miners were not the only ones brought to daylight last week; a massive criminal Armenian immigrant ring defrauding the Medicare by a whopping $135 million was, also. While the former delighted us and uplifted our spirits, the latter shocked and outraged us.

    How can one not be incensed? While those gold chain wearing, hairy and smelly thieves were lining up to buy 350,000 dollar sports cars with American taxpayers’ hard-earned money, most American families, faced with job cuts, dwindling incomes, and foreclosures, were dreading to put food on table.

    But there is worse. What the Armenian crooks perpetrated has far reaching implications impacting a wide range of policies and programs affecting all of us well into the future. These range from the cost of recent health care reforms, identification theft, and safety of senior citizens, all the way to the security of government archives, abuse of taxpayer funds, and foreign policy influenced by Armenian crooks and terrorists with access to some gullible or corrupt American politicians.

    ARE BOXER AND MENENDEZ, RECIPIENTS OF ARMENIAN MONEY, CLEAN?

    This is why I think Boxer’s campaign chest must be investigated: “Armenian organization to back Barbara Boxer at November elections”, news.am, October 15, 2010: https://news.am/eng/news/34644.html ; )

    “ The committee on political affairs of the Armenian Council of America will back Sen. Barbara Boxer at the elections scheduled for November…The Armenian Council of America made the decision due to close ties of Sen. Boxer with the Armenian community and pro-Armenian activities in the Senate…Barbara Boxer is an advocate of the Armenian Genocide recognition and has repeatedly been the author of relevant bills. She also raised the issue on unblocking of the Armenian border by Turkey. Senators Barbara Boxer and Robert Menendez have jointly placed a “hold” on U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan nominee Matthew Bryza, noting his close ties with Azerbaijan.”

    Here is my beef with all this: ambassadors to Turkey and Azerbaijan, both staunch American allies, cannot be appointed, as the vetting process is taken hostage by the Armenian lobby through their proxies in the Senate, Boxer and Menendez. I am wondering, therefore, how much of that dirty Armenian money found its way into the coffers of Boxer, Menendez, Schiff, Pallone, Radanovich, and other passionate “genociders” who bend over backwards to appease the Armenian lobby, even at the cost of sacrificing American interests.

    I am in the process of getting a copy of the official indictment. I plan to check the Armenian names against the Armenian donors of Boxer and Menendez, as the Federal Election Commission reports are public. If names match, then Boxer and Menendez must resign immediately for using Armenian fraud money to serve Armenian interests. Whether American interests were hurt or not by their actions does not even matter at that moment, because they will have served the interests of a foreign government (Armenia) without first registering as a foreign agent or lobbyist, thus breaking the law. This goes for Schiff, Pallone, Radanovich, and other bogus “genociders” on the hill.

    I appreciate that it could be hard to check, since Boxer has had over 8,000 donors in 2010, and the tricky Armenians use different spelling variations of their names making it much harder to track them down without serious investment of time and resources. But I think FBI should do it to protect the American taxpayer. If FBI finds some of those Armenian crooks in the donor rolls of Boxer, Menendez, or others, then so be it! If they do the crime, they should do the time. Let’s throw the trash out! Impeach them!

    If you think all this is far-fetched, then I suggest you think again. See, for example, “Dem donor arrested in Medicare ring”, Politico, October 14, 2010 ( .)

    One of the alleged Armenian gangsters arrested in the record-breaking $163 million Medicare fraud scheme was also a major donor to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Pogos Satamyan of Glendale, CA, reportedly arrested today, gave the DCCC $10,000 just this July, according to public records. (Only $10K? What a cheapskate! )

    OUTSMARTING THE SYSTEM: A “SKILL” REVERED IN ARMENIAN CULTURE

    Armenian fraud is not something new. “Outsmarting the system” seems to be a national pass time among most Armenians. Deception, fraud, lies, in the finest tradition of Andonian of the fake Talaat telegrams fame, should give any fair minded American a clue about the Armenian psyche.

    What I wonder is not that organized Armenian fraud makes the news for the millionth time, but did any of this Armenian fraud money, even a cent, found its way into the campaign funds of some gullible and/or corrupt politicians. After all, these politicians sold America’s interests time and again, just for a few dirty Armenian dollars, didn’t they? Shouldn’t we impeach corrupt politicians for siding with Armenian criminals?

    ARMENIAN FRAUD AND DECEPTION: A CHRONIC DISEASE

    This is not the first case of medical fraud by Armenians in US, nor is it the biggest. For example, just two years ago, in 2008, some 6 Armenians were indicted by the FBI on a $2 million fraud case: . Here is what was said in the April 4, 2008 report “ Six arrested and charged in connection with $2 million health care fraud ring”:

    “ LOS ANGELES – Six men charged with running a crime ring that stole nearly $2 million from federal and private health insurers were arrested here today following a federal and local probe involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into a health care fraud scheme.
    Collectively, the defendants face 62 counts of conspiracy to commit a crime, money laundering and grand theft of personal property. The alleged crimes occurred between March 2005 and September 2006.

    ‘On a national level, health care fraud continues to milk billions of dollars annually from government-funded health plans and private health insurers,’ District Attorney Steve Cooley said. ‘Health care fraud affects us all. These criminals not only squander health funds for underserved populations who truly warrant subsidized aid, they also affect the average consumer who is hit in the pocket book by fraud-related costs incurred by private health companies.’

    Robert Schoch, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Office of Investigations in Los Angeles, said ICE will continue to work with its local and federal law enforcement partners to attack and dismantle these kinds of schemes.

    ‘Aside from the obvious harm to insurers and needy patients, the money siphoned off in fraud schemes like this is often funneled into other forms of criminal enterprise,’ Schoch said.

    Those charged in the case are: Karapet Khacheryan, 37; Hovik Joe Altunyan, 30; Edkar Mikirtijyan, 25; Grigor Khorikyan, 29; Vahan E. Harutyunyan, 32; and Smbat Khachtryan, 26. The six men are due to be arraigned at the Criminal Justice Center April 7. Bail is recommended at $1.98 million for each defendant.
    The case, which was referred to the District Attorney’s Office by ICE and the United States Department of Health and Human Services – Office of the Inspector General, began as a drug and money laundering investigation, later expanding to include health care fraud.

    ‘Fighting Medicare and Medicaid fraud is a top priority,” said Glenn Ferry, Special Agent in Charge for the Los Angeles Region of the Office of Inspector General for the federal Department of Health and Human Services. “We will work tirelessly with our federal and state law enforcement partners to bring those who perpetrate such frauds to justice.’

    The men were taken into custody early this morning by federal authorities from residences in North Hollywood, Glendale, and Van Nuys, Calif. A seventh suspect was taken into custody on an unrelated gun charge. Search warrants also were executed at two businesses in Burbank. Of those named in the case, the highest number of charges faced by a single defendant is 31 counts. ..”

    It was a coordinated effort The Los Angeles County Health Authority Law Enforcement Task Force (HALT), the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Major Crimes and COPS bureaus, and the California Department of Justice, Bureau of Medical Fraud and Elder Abuse assisted federal agents in this investigation. All defendants faced special allegations because the offenses involved fraud and embezzlement with a pattern of related felony conduct. The special allegations also stemmed from the fact the defendants were suspected of taking more than $500,000, with estimated property losses exceeding more than $1 million.

    ARMENIAN THIEVERY HAS DEEP CULTURAL ROOTS

    I remember well how back in 1999, we were all shocked to learn that a bunch of Armenian crooks defrauded Medi-Cal (that’s California’s Medicaid) of $1 billion USD! That’s by far the largest medical fraud case in the history of the world:

    Here is what was reported by Rone Tempest , Los Angeles Times Sacramento Bureau Chief, on December 08, 1999, in his article titled “Medi-Cal Scandal Alarms Armenians”:

    “ Culture: Leaders stress that those caught are a tiny minority, and that they may have learned such behavior as a survival skill in former Soviet Union.

    Chagrined by the estimated $1-billion Medi-Cal fraud scandal among new immigrants in their community, Armenian church and civic leaders say that an explanation may lie not in Los Angeles, where most of the crime occurred, but in the culture and politics of their homeland in the former Soviet Union.

    Vazken Movsesian, parish priest of St. Gregory Armenian Orthodox Church in Pasadena, said members of the largely ethnic Armenian network charged with bilking the state and federal governments using phony medical billings came from a place ‘where the government was the government you cheated from.’ “

    Nice try by the Armenian priest to control damage, but unfortunately for Armenians, the organized fraud cases unearthed since this 1999 report shows that the Armenian community supports such illegal activities, just like they supported Armenian terrorism victimizing Turks, both in the Ottoman Empire from 1882-1922 and in the United States 1973 to present. Violence and corruption, the twin evils, seem to find fertile grounds in the Armenian culture.
    Armenian Consul General in Los Angeles and Mayor are in jail as we speak for selling fake documents to Armenian murderers and rapists to get a permanent residence in USA, for a mere , $35.000… A bargain!

    ARMENIA IN PANIC

    Alarmed by the developments, the government of Armenia embarked upon a hastily put together damage control program (See “Armenia to help US investigate Medicare scam”, By AVET DEMURYAN, Associated Press, YEREVAN, Armenia, October 14, 2010: . ) Too little, too late.

    Armenia now says it will cooperate with the United States in an investigation of Armenian gangsters accused of using bogus health care clinics to cheat Medicare out of $163 million.
    Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan said today that Armenia was sorry. The operation was reportedly led by captured crime boss, Armen Kazarian, who is known by the Soviet term “thief in law,” or “godfather” in English. Here is the rub: a top Armenian police who wanted to remain anonymous apparently told The Associated Press that about 40 ethnic Armenian godfathers operate in Europe, the U.S., Australia and the Middle East. U.S. authorities, who say this is the largest fraud in Medicare’s history, are not amused.

    VIDEOS OF ARMENIAN CROOKS AND SWINDLERS AVAILABLE

    See “Dozens Charged in $163M Medicare Fraud Scheme”, a CBS, , New York, Oct. 13, 2010:

    Here is a glimpse of what CBS said:

    “A vast network of Armenian gangsters and their associates used phantom health care clinics and other means to try to cheat Medicare out of $163 million, the largest fraud by one criminal enterprise in the program’s history, U.S. authorities said Wednesday. (Scroll down to watch a “60 Minutes” report on Medicare fraud from earlier this year)

    Federal prosecutors in New York and elsewhere charged 73 people. Most of the defendants were captured during raids Wednesday morning in New York City and Los Angeles, but there also were arrests in New Mexico, Georgia and Ohio.

    CBS News reports that more than 60 people were in custody as of Wednesday afternoon.

    The scheme’s scope and sophistication “puts the traditional Mafia to shame,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a Manhattan news conference. “They ran a veritable fraud franchise.” ( Read the First Indictment (PDF) , Read the Second Indictment (PDF) )

    Unlike other cases involving crooked medical clinics bribing people to sign up for unneeded treatments, the operation was “completely notional,” Janice Fedarcyk, head of the FBI’s New York office, said in a statement. “The whole doctor-patient interaction was a mirage.” (video:
    Medicare Fraud: A $60 Billion Crime )

    The operation was under the protection of an Armenian crime boss, known in the former Soviet Union as a “vor,” prosecutors said. The reputed boss, Armen Kazarian, was in custody in Los Angeles.

    Bharara said it was the first time a vor – “the rough equivalent of a traditional godfather” – had been charged in a U.S. racketeering case.

    Kazarian, 46, of Glendale, Calif., and two alleged ringleaders – Davit Mirzoyan, 34, also of Glendale, and Robert Terdjanian, 35, of Brooklyn – were named in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan.

    Most of the defendants were to appear in court later Wednesday on charges including racketeering conspiracy, bank fraud, money laundering and identity theft.

    Authorities began the New York-based investigation after information on 2,900 Medicare patients in upstate New York – including Social Security numbers and dates of birth – were reported stolen.

    The defendants in the New York case also had stolen the identities of doctors and set up 118 phantom clinics in 25 states, authorities said. The names were used to submit fake bills for care that was never given, they said.

    Some of the phony paperwork was a giveaway: It showed eye doctors doing bladder tests; ear, nose and throat specialists performing pregnancy ultrasounds; obstetricians testing for skin allergies; and dermatologists billing for heart exams…”

    In the New York portion of the case, more $100 million in fraudulent bills were submitted and Medicare paid out at least $35 million, sometimes by wiring it to the clinics’ banks accounts, according to the investigators. Most of the defendants were reported to be “ Armenian nationals or immigrants” with substantial ties to Armenia and even criminals there, in the indictment. Couriers would often carry cash proceeds from the fraud back to Armenia, it added. Prosecutors were reportedly seeking forfeiture of real estate in Las Vegas; Palm Springs, Calif.; and elsewhere, and of expensive cars like a 2007 Maserati and a 2006 Jaguar.

    ***

    This is far from over as the saga of Armenian thieves, crooks, swindlers, fast talkers, and genocide peddlers continues…

    Stay tuned !