Armenian Women Murdered

[Arpa]

A couple of days ago this piece of news was all over the media for several days.

At the time one thing kept turning in my head- “women drivers in Baghdad”??

I must have had a hunch even if the media did not mention the A word.

It turns out the two murdered women were Armenian.

So what else new?

Collateral damage?

Just like the Genocide-"collateral damage" during WWI?

Is it not time we cause "collateral damage" rather than receive?

Of course, we know that those names are Aarabicised. Their names are probably Maro Ovanesian and Geneva Jalalian, Karoun, Nora and Alice.

PS. Speaking of collateral damage. Did you see that one of the wounded in that school shooting in Ohio is a 57 year old math teacher David Khachatourian?



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Iraqis want answers from security firms

By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press WriterWed Oct 10, 6:27 PM ET

Iraqi officials demanded answers of an Australian-owned security company blamed in the killing of two Iraqi Christian women laid to rest Wednesday amid rising calls for a crackdown on private bodyguards used by the U.S. government.

The scrutiny of Unity Resources Group began a day after its guards allegedly gunned down the two women in their car, and less than a month after 17 Iraqis died in a hail of bullets fired by Blackwater USA contractors at a busy Baghdad intersection.

At a funeral in Baghdad's Armenian Orthodox Virgin Mary church, the Rev. Kivork Arshlian urged the government to punish those responsible. The immunity enjoyed by foreign security contractors in Iraq should be lifted, he said.

"This is a crime against humanity in general and against Iraqis in particular. Many other people were killed in a similar way," he said. "We call upon the government to put an end to these killings."

His comments reflected growing anger here against the contractors — nearly all based in the United States, Britain and other Western countries.

As the largest security firm operating in Iraq, much of that rage has been directed at Blackwater, which protects U.S. diplomats as they move about on Baghdad's dangerous streets. An Iraqi investigation into the Sept. 16 killings recommended that the U.S. State Department sever all contracts for the company's operations in Iraq within six months.

A top aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told The Associated Press that the American government was considering meeting the demand.

"They have seen that the Iraqi government is serious and inflexible on this issue. But so far there has been no concrete answer from the U.S. Embassy showing it was definitely going to drop Blackwater," the aide said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The aide said the al-Maliki government told the embassy, "We will draft and pass laws that would lift the immunity on these security companies to stop their reckless behavior."

The embassy declined to comment.

According to witnesses and police, the Armenian Christian women died when their white Oldsmobile was struck by bullets from two Unity guards as the convoy was returning to a company compound in the Karradah district.

"We cannot say the guards shot at random, but we rather say that they used deadly force in a situation where they shouldn't have," said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. "The preliminary investigation has shown that there was no threat to the convoy. The families of the victims will be summoned according to the legal procedures. They can file a law suit against the security company."

Unity Chief Operating Officer Michael Priddin said company officials had "been meeting with Iraqi authorities throughout the day and are cooperating with their investigations."

"The security team used graduated and escalated responses which included non-lethal means such as signage, strobe lights, hand signals, and a signal flare fired in front of the vehicle in an effort to get it to stop," Priddin said in a statement Wednesday night. "The vehicle did not heed these warnings and failed to halt. Fearing a suicide attack, only then did the team use their weapons in a final attempt to stop the vehicle."

Witnesses, however, said the women's car appeared to be attempting to stop when it was hit.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said Unity was "working with the Diplomatic Security Service here at the embassy and with the government of Iraq ... to be accountable and to investigate fully what happened."

Unity, which is owned by Australian partners but with headquarters in the United Arab Emirates, provides protection for USAID contractor RTI International. According to the USAID Web site, RTI has about $450 million in U.S. government contracts to work on local governance projects in Iraq. USAID is a semiautonomous arm of the U.S. State Department that manages American aide programs.

Statements from both Unity and RTI have made clear the guards were not escorting RTI clients when the shooting occurred.

At the church, mourners wept and called for justice during the funeral Mass for Marou Awanis, who was driving the car, and Geneva Jalal, a passenger.

Among a small group of relatives and friends were Awanis' three daughters, who cried over their mother's simple casket, adorned only with a golden cross.

Awanis, whose husband died during heart surgery last year, was using the Oldsmobile as an unofficial taxi to raise money for her three now-orphaned daughters: Noura, 21, and Karound, 20, both students at Technology University; and Alees, 12.

As journalists approached at the funeral service, Noura screamed: "What is the use of the word sorry?"

___

Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Edited October 11, 2007 by Arpa

[Arpa]

DAUGHTERS' ANGUISH AT FUNERAL OF MOTHER KILLED BY PRIVATE GUARDS

 

Sources: Iraqi Government; UNHCR

The Times

October 11, 2007

 

Sarmad al-Waali in Baghdad and Deborah Haynes in Baghdad

 

Three Christian sisters, beating their mother's coffin in grief,

wailed and hugged each other at her funeral in Baghdad yesterday

as their rapidly shrinking religious community vented anger at the

foreign security guards who killed her.

 

Marou Awanis, a part-time taxi driver, and one of her women passengers

became the latest victims to die at the hands of a foreign private

security team in Iraq after they were shot dead in the centre of the

capital on Tuesday.

 

Both the women were Armenian Christians. Their deaths stunned their

minority religious sect, which has seen its numbers in Iraq fall by

more than a half, to 10,000, since the invasion of March 2003.

 

The killings also heightened a sense of outrage towards private

security companies, in particular Blackwater, which many people regard

as a private army that acts with impunity.

 

Unity Resources Group, an Australian security outfit based in Dubai,

said that it was investigating an incident in Baghdad on Tuesday when

its guards opened fire on a vehicle. The Iraqi Government said that

the men killed Mrs Awanis and her passenger.

 

Scores of relatives and friends gathered at the main Armenian Church

in Baghdad to grieve the death of Mrs Awanis, aged 48. The body of

the second woman, identified as Geneva Jalal, was also there but no

one from her family showed up.

 

Everyone was shocked that Mrs Awanis, a widow and former agricultural

engineer who was forced to drive a taxi to make ends meet, had been

killed. "I don't know what to say. This is the worst crime I have

ever seen," said Abu Mareeam, the dead woman's nephew.

 

The three daughters, Aless, 12, Karown, 20, and Noraa, 21, were doubled

up in tears as they crowded around their mother's simple wooden coffin,

which was decorated with a small golden cross.

 

"These criminals killed a mother and left three orphaned girls.

 

Who will take care of them now?" asked one relative, who gave her

name as Um Masees.

 

Watching the proceedings with sadness, the Rev Nareek Ashkanean,

50, said: "This is another crime against the citizens in Iraq. Every

day civilians are being killed and no one is trying to stop it from

happening." He blamed foreign private security companies for a lot

of the suffering.

 

"I ask the Government to stop these companies and to bring those who

kill without reason to justice regardless of his nationality or his

country," the Rev Ashkanean said. "I want the Government to force

these companies out."

 

Iraq and the United States formed a joint commission to look into a

range of issues related to foreign private security companies in the

wake of a shoot-out involving Blackwater guards that left 17 people

dead last month. The commission has yet to make its recommendations

but it is expected to explore areas such as accountability and

jurisdiction.

 

In the latest shooting, Unity said an investigation was under way

but initial findings showed its security team fired after a vehicle

failed to stop despite "an escalation of warnings which included hand

signals and a signal flare".

 

Witnesses and police said that it appeared that Mrs Awanis, who

had been driving two women and a child, was trying to stop when the

shooting began.

 

The women are due to be buried at a cemetery near Baqouba, 35 miles

(55km) northeast of Baghdad, today.

 

Minority faith

 

1.4 million Christians were recorded in Iraq's last full national

census in 1987

 

700,000 have fled since then, mostly to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan

and Turkey

 

30% of Iraqi refugees in the Lebanon are Christian, although Christians

make up only 2-3 per cent of the Iraqi population

 

 

[Arpa]

By now it is well known that I am a cynic. But my cynicism has its limit.

Here we are, mourning the murder of two beautiful Armenian women. No! Five plus Armenian beautiful Armenians.

Yet! Day after day we have some cynic morons come here, try to pit the nation within itself, draw lines between Diasporans v Natives, WA v EA, Ejmiatsin v Antelias, Iraqi Armenians V Bourj hamoud ones, Glendale Armenians v Gumretsis.

We mourn each and every one of them, no matter whether they live in the above places and beyond.

Cynicism=idiocy has a limit too!!

Please! Those who have not yet sorted out the location of their heads and their "seats" need not respond.

Edited October 11, 2007 by Arpa

[Johannes]

1.4 million Christians were recorded in Iraq's last full national

census in 1987.

 

700,000 have fled since then, mostly to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan

 

This is what Mr. G.W.B gave as gift to Christianity and Christian minorities in the Middle East.

 

Is Mr. Bush really Christian?

 

 

[Arpa]

[/font][/size]

 

This is what Mr. G.W.B gave as gift to Christianity and Christian minorities in the Middle East.

 

Is Mr. Bush really Christian?

Yes! He is as much a "christian" as those moronic "Fundamental Evangelicals" wo are still waiting for the "second coming ", "armageddon/vormageddon" when ISRAEL/ASS-rael will rule the WORLD.

In a private exchange between me and Johannes, we agreed that that so called SAE/Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia, with over 50% dedicated to the likes of "mehmet-oghlu-osman, member of the Communist party since 1922..." Let me add another "book of lies" to stoke the fires and keep our brothers warm during December and January.

Msybe then the likes GWB will learn history other than from that "book of lies" aka Bible.

That in no way absolves us when we claim to be the descendants of that drunken idiot Noah.

Edited October 11, 2007 by Arpa

[Johannes]

Yes! He is as much a "christian" as those moronic "Fundamental Evangelicals" wo are still waiting for the "second coming ", "armageddon/vormageddon" when ISRAEL/ASS-rael will rule the WORLD.

Fundamentalism is Fundamentalism whenever it exist. The same matter for the fundamentalists.

[Arpa]

Fundamentalism is Fundamentalism whenever it exist. The same matter for the fundamentalists.

How is that different from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist fundamentalism when Islamic Fundamentals quote the Shari'a and prescribe that anyone who dares question it, and seek other rezligions, will be condemmed to death by stoning.?

Is not religion a personal choice? Whatever happened to the "separation of religion/church/mosque and state"?

Yes. My legal papers may qualify me as "armani khristian/nassari", as in "hart el nassara/Christian quarter snd Hart el Arman/ Armenian quaretrs/literally harat **el Arman/Streets of the Armenians" in Jerulasem.

Does not "armani" also mean "Christian"?

** Hara, means "street" in Arabic. For all those who speak Greek, gther is no H in gtheir aphabet just as the Russian,and they substitute H to KH as in "khara" to mean "shit" in the Arabic language

Edited October 11, 2007 by Arpa

[Johannes]

Does not "Armani" also mean "Christian"?

 

Which Christian? As we saw above there is 40 (your preferred number) sections in Christianity, as it is the situation in other religions.

 

I hope Armani means only Armani, which is the name of a Christianized nation.

 

 

[Arpa]

[/size]

 

Which Christian? As we saw above there is 40 (your preferred number) sections in Christianity, as it is the situation in other religions.

 

I hope Armani means only Armani, which is the name of a Christianized nation.

Yes dear Ohannes,

When Ottomas and Turks use the word "ermeni" they don't mean the Armenian Nation, but a minority christians.

Do we know what " riiya hal aqq/loyal herd" means?

Do they mean that "ermeni" also means the cult of Aramazt and Anahit?

Do they know that the town of Kilis, a few miles south of Aintap is based on the word "kilis/ecclesia/ekeghetsi/Եկեղեցի/church"?

Edited October 11, 2007 by Arpa

[Johannes]

Do they know?

 

I guess many of them knew and started to know, who we are. This knowledge does not guarantee the acceptance, the acceptance of our rights & historical realities.