elle

Thanks for the clip. Please add more whenever possible. I really feel for these people. I think they're all shocked judging by their reactions on this event. I wonder what that lady in red was saying about LTP when they beeped the first few seconds of her interview.

I received that email too! It's really disturbing that our youth is not familiar with the real US democracy in other countries. I think those ASA members should only stick to ASA issues around the campus, since they are clearly deluded about democracy. I certainly didn't appreciate that worthless email i got. Not because it speaks about democracy, but that we need to contact the US government to ask for democratic help in Armenia...as if the US is the expert in democracy. This makes me not want to go to ASA meetings....not that I do, but I have few times before.

I've been following the Russian media yesterday and today (OPT channel one) and they haven't mentioned this incident yet. I know that they're busy with their elections, but the main reason is not to show the incident in order not to lower Armenia's imagine, so they're trying to keep it low for now. I say bravo to that! What happened will only bring us shame and I'm glad that they're not exposing the incident because of their support of the country. The same happened in Georgia (although it was escalated) but the Russians didn't hesitate to show it all from the beginning, which was evident that they were trying to show all that crap that went on in Georgia having antagnositic feelings towards them. I think they will eventually cover the incident, but in much lighter and less shamefull way for us. Few independent channels did cover it, but very briefly. The state owned channel hasn't done it. They should keep it up...no need to compare us to the Georgians.

Thanks for these videos. It's sick to see what LTP has done to Armenia. This event reminds me of early and mid-1990s when he was in charge. I would be surprised if he doesn't get arrested or something else doesn't happen to him when situation is calmer. Poor dead people. LTP was no worth their life.

Probably not. If you noticed in the beginning of the video, it was noted that someone asked him a question about the AG, so that's how he responded. The meeting wasn't about the AG. Since there's no clip that shows Oskanyan responding, I don't think he did since it was just a quetsion for the Turkish president.

Erdogan's Speech on the AG issue and Artsax at the 44th Security Conference in Munich, Germany. I would have loved to hear Vardan Oskanyan respond to his BS. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUf4y-0HC3Y...feature=related

Finally, they started doing something and not just sitting on their passive butts at the Ministry. They shouldn't have waited so long. If I was in charge of the Ministry, I would immediately mobilize another branch/office at the Ministry that mainly deals with all this Judeo-Turkish propaganda that is trying to undermine our cause. I would send letters of protest to israeli Knesset every single day! I would also invite Shimon Peres to Armenia and demand an explanation for his words! Not sure if I would succeed at that, but won't hurt to try. Vardan Oskanyan seriously needs to be aggressive as a FM.

Are you referring to Steve La Vine as in the same Steve La Vine who has his own blog about the Caspian oil geopolitics? That's interesting because my professor has assigned us Steve's blog, called "The Oil & The Glory" for us to read each week. I even subscribed to his weekly articles! I don't know much about what he has said about the Armenians. His articles mainly deal with oil and gas in Eurasia and Russia's power game in the region. He has few videos on youtube, in which he presented few interesting points about the politics of oil in Eurasia. Where can I get more info on what you were saying above? I'd like to find out more what he has said about the Armenians. Jews+Turks(Azeris)=A Match Made In Heaven They're both treacherous and evil!

I'm taking a course on Israeli foreign policy (and some history) and what is amazing is how my professor (woman) presents the Israeli side and anything that has to do with the Jews/Israel as very rosy and kept repeating how the Jews are the sufferers for centuries. At some point she kept repeating that they were killed because they were disliked for no reason and the Jews were naive to believe that at some point people would stop hating them. I mean she was sooo far off from reality. I remember how she mentioned about Sabatai Zevi, who first was "forced" to convert to Islam under the Sultan's rule in the Ottoman Empire. She even presented that scenario as "Muslims not tolerating the Jews, so Jews are foced to convert and loose their identities, instead of choosing to die" poor Jews! Of course she never went further explaining that just because those "poor and suffering Jews" converted to Islam, they never stopped being Jewish or stopped infiltrating the Ottoman Empire for their benefits. The whole class is about how perfect the Jews are, how mistreated they have been, how innocent they are, how Israel has every right to what it's doing, how evil those Arab terrorists are, etc. The books we're reading are written by the Jews of course! I really think that this is very troubling. Not only am I paying $10,000/year to be fed this BS, but it seems like half of my professors are of Jewish origin. Have you noticed how there's more Jews in the academia, the media, the politics, science than anyone else? I'm speaking about the US. It's seems like they're everywhere where there can have potential control or spread of information. I really feel like sending her some info on how the jews infiltrated the Ottoman Empire and they're role in the Armenian Genocide and their agenda in the Caspian. She seems very nice and down to earth, but I have this tendency of collecting information on that matter and putting it in her mailbox at the end of the quarter...after I get my final grade of course I can just say "Look what kind of crazy things I came across to. It's so troubling and what a propoganda!" But that way the info will catch her eyes and she will read it all! It's all about pretending what side you're on, while making sure that you shed light on what you're trying to accomplish.

Azeri Minister of Defence: Chance of war is close to 100% with Armenia Baku threatens war with Armenia by Aris Ghazinyan The moderate course of the meeting of the Council of CIS Defense Ministers in Kazakhstan on Tuesday was broken by a sensational revelation by the Azeri defense chief Safar Abiyev that “as long as Azerbaijani territory is occupied by Armenia, the chance of war is close to 100 percent.” The sharp boost of bellicose statements by official Baku has been clearly felt since the beginning of this autumn when on September 7 President Aliyev stated that “for the purpose of restoring control over the whole territory of the republic, Azerbaijan is ready to resort to any measures, including application of force.” Three days later Abiyev’s claimed: “War is underway and the enemy starts to shoot at our positions.” He repeated the words of President Aliyev that only for military needs official Baku spends a sum comparable to the whole budget of Armenia. Deputy Speaker of the Armenian parliament Vahan Hovhannisyan, who is a senior member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), responded to the MOD’s statement saying that in military operations in the early 1990s, Azerbaijan’s military budget exceeded the financial possibilities of the defending Armenian population, however this superiority did not play a decisive role. The peculiarity of the latest statement of the Azeri minister is the very format of such a statement. The Commonwealth of Independent States is not a militarized bloc, however at the table of discussions there were also heads of defense departments of post-Soviet countries that are part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Five of the six members of this military-strategic alliance, namely Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus, are connected between themselves by alternating borders and only Armenia is in land isolation. However, in accordance with the fundamental principles of the CSTO “any member country can expect help from the collective quick-reaction forces of the CSTO in the event of a threat to its security.” Thus, Abiyev’s statement is associated with a gauntlet thrown before the foundations of the CSTO and currently the Armenian political establishment expects a corresponding reaction from this military-strategic alliance. Nevertheless, while the CSTO is pondering over the advisability of accepting the Azeri gauntlet, Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan stated on November 29: “The armed forces of Armenia are always ready to defend the country’s borders and the Azerbaijani side must consider that if it chooses a military way of solving the issue, it will have to solve more complicated problems than it solves now.” However, it is in the recent time that aggressive statements of Baku officials are “backed up” with unprecedented powerful information support. Practically on a daily basis Azerbaijani news agencies report about growing tensions on the contact line, which create an atmosphere of the need for retaliating. In particular, in the past few months the Day Az agency has been replete with daily reports about killed and wounded Azeri officers and soldiers. Now few doubt that Baku is developing schemes of establishing its control over the territories of the former Azerbaijani SSR. Despite numerous statements about the possibility of renewed hostilities “in order to recover occupied lands”, there are no reasons to assume that Azerbaijan is planning a large-scale counter-offensive along the whole frontline. Apart from other things, a large-scale war will create a threat to the functioning of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline that lies close to the security zone and whose operation fills the military budget of Azerbaijan. It is evident that in the event of a new war, Armenian defense forces may as well permit themselves to deliver target strikers against the oil pipeline, or as Kocharyan said, “take a decision that the military situation will require.” It is beyond doubt that Azeri authorities realize well such a prospect. A blitz local operation that Azerbaijan is likely to be preparing for is quite a different thing. Such a scheme implies waging an active war on a small area with a huge loss of human lives. It is a situation that Baku is ready for to a certain degree. The “big war in a small area” scenario fraught with a seeming transformation into large-scale military operations is oriented to intervention of the international community, in particular the United Nations. Official Baku has repeatedly tried to shift the discussion of the Artsax problem from the OSCE to the UN format with a prospect of redeployment of an international peacekeeping contingent on the frontline, including along the whole perimeter of the Armenian-Azeri state border. According to one of the schemes being developed in Baku, Nagorno-Artsax will be thus cut off from Armenia by the “blue helmets” and the occupation regime of the UN. However, a well-considered military provocation in the form of a small war is needed for that, for which Azerbaijan is likely to be preparing for. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con...va&aid=7496

I know! Or just like Hakobian, which is French! OK I'm joking now

It's Yulia Timoshenko, but she's not! Her dad's last name is Grigyan, which made everyone think that she's half Armenian, but she said that she's not Armenian and that her dad is either Lithuanian or Latvian...from one of the Baltic states. She cleared the rumors a while ago. I heard that there are few Baltic last names that do end in -yan/-ian, but they have nothing to do with Armenians!

How sad is this? Turkish helicopter down in Iraq Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago CUKURCA, Turkey - A Turkish helicopter crashed in Iraq and eight soldiers were killed during a cross-border ground operation against Kurdish rebels, who planted booby traps on the bodies of their slain comrades, Turkey's military said Sunday. The guerrillas said they shot down a Turkish military helicopter near the Turkish-Iraqi border. Turkey's military said technicians were inspecting the wreck to determine why the helicopter crashed near the border. It was not clear if any of the reported troop casualties were on board. Their deaths bring the Turkish toll since the start of the incursion Thursday to 15, the military said on its Web site. Thirty-three rebels were killed in Sunday's fighting, bringing the rebel death toll since Thursday to 112, according to the armed forces. The incursion is the first confirmed Turkish military ground operation in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. The rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, are fighting for autonomy in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey and have carried out attacks on Turkish targets from bases in the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The conflict started in 1984 and has claimed as many as 40,000 lives. Turkey has assured that the operation would be limited to attacks on rebels. The United States and European Union consider the PKK a terrorist group. "It is only an operation geared to cleansing the terrorist camps," Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Sunday in an address to the youth branch of his ruling party. "Our Iraqi brothers, friends and civilians should know that they will never be targeted by the armed forces." U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday while visiting Australia that it would take a broader approach to erode PKK support in northern Iraq. "After a certain point people become inured to military attacks," he said, "and if you don't blend them with these kinds of nonmilitary initiatives, then at a certain point the military efforts become less and less effective." Massoud Barzani, head of the regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, warned Turkey would face large-scale resistance if it targeted civilians in its incursion. The Iraqi government said Saturday fewer than 1,000 Turkish troops had crossed the frontier. Turkish media reports put the number in the thousands. The office of Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Turkish forces should leave Iraq. "We demand that the Turkish government withdraw its forces immediately from the Iraqi territory and rely on negotiations to solve this conflict," al-Sadr's political committee said in a statement. Iran, which is fighting an Iraq-based group of Kurdish militants with PKK links, said it would maintain security measures on its border with northern Iraq. The Turkish military said clashes with the rebels were taking place in four areas of northern Iraq, but did not specify any location. "Terrorist hideouts have been effectively destroyed by warplanes, helicopter gunships and artillery," the military said. It said advancing troops were destroying rebel shelters, logistic centers and ammunition. Retreating rebels were trying to gain time by setting up booby traps under the corpses of dead comrades or planting mines on escape routes, the military said. The bodies of five of the 33 rebels killed Sunday had booby traps under them, the statement said. Late Sunday, several military helicopters took off from a base in the hilltop town of Cukurca, flying with their lights off. Earlier, Turkish F-16 jets flew into northern Iraq. Armored personnel carriers transported troops, and four long-range guns were positioned at the Cukurca base, one of the main support centers for the Turkish operation.

Yeah, I posted it before. Doesn't really matter much, since he's not really doing anything to resolve the Artsax situation.

Were you being sarcastic with teh last comment? Russia only pretends that it's agains Kosovo independence. What it really wants is an independent Ossetia and Abkhazia on its border. That way it will further destabilize Georgia.

Da arden chi statsvi vortev es zardnumem tserek@ 1-2in. I'm not kidding you! Es zardnumem erb mardik arden orva kes@ ashxatelen. It's sad

Gates: Turkey raid won't solve problems CANBERRA, Australia - Turkey's military assault into northern Iraq will not solve the terrorist problem there, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday, calling for greater political and economic initiatives by the Turks to win over supporters of the Kurdish rebels. Speaking as the Turkish military continued its first major ground incursion into Iraq since 2003, Gates said it will take a broader approach, similar to U.S. and coalition efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, to erode support for the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq. "I think all our experience in Iraq and Afghanistan shows us that while dealing with a terrorist problem does require security operations, it also requires economic and political initiatives," Gates told reporters. He said a consistent message from the U.S. to the Turkish government is that military efforts must be supplemented by other political and economic outreach to Kurds. "After a certain point people become inured to military attacks," he said, "and if you don't blend them with these kinds of nonmilitary initiatives, then at a certain point the military efforts become less and less effective." Gates, who is wrapping up a three-day visit to Australia, said the U.S. has continued to provide the Turks with intelligence for its military operations. And, noting that Turkey warned the U.S.-backed Iraqi government of the incursion, he said such communication and coordination must continue. "In terms of the current operation," Gates added, "I would hope it would be short, that it would be precise and avoid the loss of innocent life, and that they leave as quickly as they can accomplish the mission." He would not specify how soon he hoped the Turks would halt the assault, saying only, "The shorter the better." The Turks have consistently complained that the Iraqis and the U.S. have not done enough to combat the PKK's guerrilla operations, as rebels carry out attacks on Turkey from bases in the heavily mountainous Kurdish region in Iraq. The rebels have been fighting for autonomy for more than 20 years.

"Reunite Cyprus" uzuma asi vor turkerin tshen endexits te vonts? Chaskatsa Lavorvi mitk@ "reunite Cyprus" aselov. Uzuma asi vor miatsnen Cyprus@ vorpes Greek island norits?

Yeah! I'm working on it as we speak! I'm writing about the Caucasus geopolitics, mainly about Armenia though. Bait miev nuina uzumem esel gnam, ur vor mer enger@ gnuma! I'm bored.

Take me with you. Can I come?

Confirmed!

Who are you talking about? As far as I know there were no Germans present in this topic and who's the "German idiot"?

Mardun portsumem ognem isk duk....... Hamenain deps esem vor miak ognoxna!

Turkey: 35 Kurd rebels killed (CNN) -- At least 35 Kurdish rebels have been killed in fighting in northern Iraq on Saturday, Turkey's military said Saturday as its offensive against the rebels came under criticism from Baghdad. The Associated Press quoted the military saying that the total number of rebels killed in its three day incursion was now 79, while two of its own soldiers died Saturday, bringing Turkey's death toll to seven. The incursion against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Iraq began late Thursday, marking a major escalation in Ankara's fight against the rebels. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Iraq's president and prime minister had urged Turkish officials to rethink the offensive, AP reported. "We know the threats that Turkey is facing but military operations will not solve the PKK problem," al-Dabbagh said. In a statement Friday, the Turkish military said it would act with "utmost sensitivity in order to avoid negative impact on local elements" -- a reference to keeping civilians out of the conflict. "The Turkish Armed Forces, which values Iraq's territorial integrity and its stability, will return as soon as planned goals are achieved," the military said. "The executed operation will prevent the region from being a permanent and safe base for the terrorists and will contribute to Iraq's stability and internal peace." Turkey has been taking cross-border military action, including airstrikes and artillery shelling, against the PKK in retaliation to attacks by the group on targets in Turkey from bases in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The PKK has spent two decades fighting for autonomy for Kurds in southeastern Turkey. Turkey has also been carrying out small ground operations into Iraq, forays characterized as "hot pursuit" incursions with a few hundred commandos responding to a particular threat. Citing Turkish media reports estimating that as many as 10,000 Turkish troops had been involved, Domino Hakura, an analyst with UK military thinktank Chatham House, said the operation was the first major incursion by Turkey into Iraq since Hussein was toppled in 2003. Hakura said the Turkish military wanted to conduct a surprise attack against the PKK prior to the springtime, when violent attacks tend to escalate, and when the snow in the mountainous border region leaves the fighters' footprints. "Normally during the 1980s and the 1990s, the incursions involved 35,000 50,000 troops and they tended to be somewhat open-ended over weeks. This one is expected to be limited to a matter of days and targeted attacks against the PKK," he said. U.S. officials were downplaying the scope of the operation Friday. Tom Casey, deputy State Department spokesman, said Iraqi Foreign Ministry Hoshyar Zebari called the incursion "limited in nature" and not "major." "The PKK is a common enemy of the U.S., Turkey and Iraq. We need to work together to resolve it," Casey said. "We are pleased that Turks have stressed that they will do everything possible to avoid acts that would harm civilians." Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq, told CNN the military is "aware" of a Turkish "operation of limited duration to specifically target PKK terrorists in that region." "Turkey has given its assurances it will do everything possible to avoid collateral damage to innocent civilians or Kurdish infrastructure," Smith said. The ground troops' deployment followed cross-border shelling early Thursday by Turkish soldiers into abandoned villages north of Irbil -- the capital of Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government. The shelling, which struck abandoned villages in the Khwar-Kork area north of Irbil, lasted two hours and was followed by heavy gunfire, a KRG official told CNN. There were no reports of casualties. Border tensions have been a source of diplomatic disagreement between the U,S. and its Iraqi and Turkish allies. U.S. and Iraqi authorities have been concerned that any large-scale operation by Turkey into Iraq to chase down Kurdish rebels could destabilize the region. At the same time, the U.S. backs Turkey's efforts to battle the PKK, which both countries regard as a terrorist group and has been providing intelligence to the Turks. "The United States continues to support Turkey's right to defend itself from the terrorist activities of the PKK and has encouraged Turkey to use all available means, to include diplomacy and close coordination with the Government of Iraq to ultimately resolve this issue," Smith said.

Anytime