Armenia- Turkey Relations : As Armenia pushes for reconciliation, Turkey plays hard to get

In the village of Haykadzor on the edge of Armenia’s long sealed border with Turkey, Boris Davutyan, a 70-year-old farmer with a sun-weathered face, says he is in favor of peace with his country’s historical foe. “It would be good for trade,” he said, gesturing toward the Akhouryan River that separates Turkey from Armenia. “In Soviet times we used to go down to the river and smoke cigarettes and drink vodka with the Turks. The genocide committed against us by the Ottomans was 100 years ago. You have to look to the future, not be stuck in the past.”

Some 117 kilometers (73 miles) southeast, at a windswept cemetery overlooking Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, Armen Poghosyan stared at his only son’s grave. His head was bowed, his body stiffened with grief. He has been coming every single day since the 19-year-old was laid to rest alongside his comrades on this hilltop facing the snow-capped peak of Mount Ararat on the Turkish side.

Barsegh was killed “either by artillery fire or in a drone strike, we don’t know for sure,” a day after the war started on Sept. 27, 2020, Poghosyan said. “Turkey is our centuries-old enemy. We can’t be friends with those who got drunk on the blood of our children.”

Barsegh was among the 3,825 Armenians who perished in Armenia’s 44-day war with Azerbaijan.

The site, called Yerablur, Armenian for “based on three hills,” is carpeted with the graves of the fallen. Most of them are under 30. Their faces, engraved on dark grey basalt headstones, exude a childlike exuberance.

Turkey, with its military advisers and killer drones, tipped the balance decisively in Azerbaijan’s favor, helping its Muslim Turkic cousins wrest back large swathes of territory occupied by Armenia in a previous war three decades ago. Today, Armenia, a landlocked country of 2.9 million that long seemed invincible as much to itself as to the world beyond, is shaken to its core. At one extreme there are those like the farmer Davutyan who seek peace and at the other, people like the bereaved father Poghosyan who dream of revenge. Somewhere in the middle sits a silent majority numbed by fear and helplessness bordering on apathy.

Read more at As Armenia pushes for reconciliation, Turkey plays hard to get - Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East

Genocide - many countries, including US, and many EU countries also have blood on their hands: After Biden remark, U.S. yet to commit to its own genocide probe of Russia : By H. Pamuk and D. Psaledakis

The United States on Wednesday stopped short of promising to launch its own inquiry to determine whether genocide was committed by Russia in Ukraine but said it will support international efforts to hold Russia accountable.

President Joe Biden said for the first time on Tuesday that Russia's invasion of Ukraine amounts to genocide, a significant escalation of his rhetoric. read more U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Wednesday declined to say whether Biden's comments reflected the overall position of the U.S. government, but said the president "was speaking to the impression he had garnered from watching the horrific footage that we've all seen" from Ukraine.

Read more at: After Biden remark, U.S. yet to commit to its own genocide probe of Russia | Reuters

Russia Ukraine invasion: Inside Putin’s cabal of bloodthirsty top brass who bomb hospitals, gas kids, and run down protesters with tanks

As Putin's planned quick invasion of Ukraine appears to turn against him, the Russian army has resorted to more and more vicious measures.

Almost 90% of the southern city of Mariupol has been damaged or destroyed, while numerous atrocities have been reported, including the shelling of a theatre killing 300, or the bombing of a maternity hospital.

But these atrocities should sadly come as little surprise to those who have been following the actions

From the bloody civil war in Syria to the brutal annexation of Crimea, and even killing their own people, Putin's top generals have been accused of waging savagery across the world for decades.

Read more at Inside Putin’s cabal of bloodthirsty top brass who bomb hospitals, gas kids, and run down protesters with tanks

Ukraine war: Time to shift strategies: We must do more to aid Ukraine - "give terrorist Putin an ultimatum to declare cease-fire or else"

War is dynamic, a contest of wills between warring parties, each of which is fighting to achieve its political objectives and thwart its enemy. War reveals vulnerabilities not apparent when it begins, and opportunities absent at the start. Momentum shifts. Strategies should shift accordingly. This is where we are with the war in Ukraine today.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin started his illegal war to conquer and subjugate Ukraine, in his mind, Russia would quickly defeat the Ukrainian military and, thereby, the nation’s will to fight. That didn’t happen. Ukraine resisted, showing weaknesses in the Russian military machine. And global sanctions reduced Russia’s ability to fund the war. The result: stalemate. Russia has lost tactical momentum. Now Ukraine must seize it.

Two opportunities emerged. The stalemate allowed Ukraine to go on the offensive — local counterattacks and maybe a more general counter-offensive. And it provided an opportunity for the Allies to shift strategy.

Read more at: https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/598908-time-to-shift-strategies-we-must-do-more-to-aid-ukraine

Germany officially recognises colonial-era Namibia genocide

Germany has officially acknowledged committing genocide during its colonial occupation of Namibia, and announced financial aid worth more than €1.1bn (£940m; $1.34bn).

Read more at: Germany officially recognises colonial-era Namibia genocide - BBC News

Genocide - Hypocracy: many countries have a dark page in their history: Historian Examines Native American Genocide, its Legacy, and Survivors

Genocide documents the murderous intentions that lurked beneath the idealized self-imaging of a young American nation.

“In order to have a ‘land of opportunity’ required space to expand,” Ostler notes. “Early American senses of ‘freedom’ fundamentally depended upon the taking of Native lands—which almost inevitably would lead to the taking of Native lives.”

From the beginning, he believes, US leaders understood and embraced this grim calculus. However, they obscured their true aims with a series of self-serving narratives built around the ideal of “civilization.” At first, this was held forth as a precious and necessary gift the colonizers were offering to Indigenous populations. Later, “defending civilization” would be invoked as justification to kill them.

Read more at: Historian Examines Native American Genocide, its Legacy, and Survivors | Around the O

Armenia and Turkish Genocide Dispute: Full-Page WSJ Ad Denying Armenian Genocide Spurs Anger - by Stav Ziv

A full-page ad denying the Armenian genocide spurred anger Wednesday, appearing in The Wall Street Journal just days before the 101st anniversary of the event’s start on April 24, 1915.

“Truth = Peace,” the ad declared in large font at the center of the page. At the top, in smaller letters, it said,

“Stop the allegations,” and directed readers to a website called Fact Check Armenia, which declares as false the idea that “the events of 1915 constitute a clear-cut genocide against the Armenian people” and calls efforts of the Armenian diaspora to gain recognition of the genocide “propaganda.”

The ad shows three hands—a hand making a peace sign in the middle is tinged with red and features the star and crescent of the Turkish flag, and is flanked by a hand on each side with fingers crossed in the hues of the Armenian and Russian flags.

Gary Bass, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, tweeted a photo of the ad Wednesday morning, garnering hundreds of retweets and a slew of reactions, many of which chided The Wall Street Journal for printing it and questioned whether the paper would have printed a similar ad related to the Holocaust.

According to a post on the Chicago Armenian Genocide Centennial committee’s Facebook page, the same ad also appeared Wednesday in the pages of the Chicago Tribune. The newspaper ads come soon after billboards with similar designs appeared near Boston’s Armenian Heritage Park and in the Chicago area
.
“It should be taken down,” Lori Yogurtian, founder of the Armenian Students Association at Suffolk University, told the Boston Globe when the billboard appeared in Boston’s North End in early April. “It’s completely one-sided, completely perpetuating denial of something that has time and time again been proven as a fact.”

The billboard was indeed taken down, the Globe reported, with a spokesman for its owner, Clear Channel Outdoor, saying “the ad was placed there in error.” The Chicago centennial group said in a post on Facebook that the billboards in that area had also been removed.

In response to the criticism, a Wall Street Journal spokesperson said in a comment provided to Gawker that “we accept a wide range of advertisements, including those with provocative viewpoints. While we review ad copy for issues of taste, the varied and divergent views expressed belong to the advertisers.”

Ab Kaan, a coordinator for The Turkic Platform and Fact Check Armenia, said in an email to Newsweek that “all data in Fact Check Armenia is produced by The Turkic Platform,” which is supported by Turkish companies in Turkey, Europe and primarily in the U.S.

Several countries, including the United States, have failed to formally recognize the Armenian genocide as genocide, or to use the “G-word” in commemoration ceremonies, despite efforts by lobbyists that intensified leading up to last year’s centennial. However, historians and genocide scholars agree that the events beginning in 1915 constituted genocide.

“There is a near consensus that the Armenian genocide was a genocide, or that genocide is the right word,” David Simon, a professor of political science at Yale University and co-director of its Genocide Studies Program, told Newsweek ahead of the 100th anniversary last year. “The deportations and massacres amounted to a crime we now know is genocide. In 1915, there was no such word.”

The controversy is generated by Turkey, says Armen Marsoobian, a professor of philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University who teaches courses in comparative genocide. Turkey vehemently opposes the use of the term “genocide” to describe the events, and recalled ambassadors to the Vatican and Austria after Pope Francis and Austrian lawmakers did so ahead of the centennial.

 Read more: Full-Page WSJ Ad Denying Armenian Genocide Spurs Anger

Japan - Genocide World War II : The moment Truman announced the bombing of Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945, US B-29 aircraft the Enola Gay unleashed unprecedented power when it dropped the world's first atomic bomb, "Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

Three days later, the US dropped a second nuclear bomb on the city of Nagasaki.

The bombings caused unrivalled destruction and killed at least 200,000 people.

Days later, Japan surrendered and World War II was over.

The bombings remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.
An excerpt of former US president Harry Truman's announcement that the US had dropped an atomic bomb for the first time in history is shown in this video below (via Youtube). Click onm link below.

Read more: The moment Truman announced the bombing of Hiroshima - Al Jazeera English

Japan - Hiroshima and Nagasaki Genocide: 70 years on: Survivors remember horror of nuclear bombs

More than 200.000 civilians massacred in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Thursday marks 70 years since the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

It killed around 140,000 people in the Japanese city by the end of 1945. The only structure left standing on ground zero is now known as the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome.

Now recognised by UNESCO as “a stark and powerful symbol of the most destructive force ever created by humankind”, it has been transformed into a peace memorial.

During World War II, the building was used to house government offices.

Kimie Mihara, now aged 89 and a great-grandmother, worked there as a teenager.
“I survived because I was late for work,” she said.

“So I felt lucky because I was not here at the time but when I think of those who died because they were diligent and on time, I am just so sorry for them.”

Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped by the US on the city of Nagasaki bringing the total number of people killed to over 200.000 people,  and on August 15, Japan surrendered.

Their ranks dwindling, survivors continue to suffer the after-effects of radiation. Some find it too painful to talk about their experiences.

Others do speak out, so that the world will never forget.

Read more: Hiroshima Genocide:  70 years on: Survivors remember horror of nuclear bomb | euronews, world news

Srebrenica Genocide: Srebrenica crowds drive Serbian prime minister from anniversary event - by

Serbia’s prime minister has been chased out of a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre by a huge crowd throwing stones and bottles.

Tens of thousands of people turned out for the event to remember the 8,000 Bosnian Muslims who were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in a UN refuge in 1995. But the crowd turned on Aleksandar Vučić, who was whisked away by bodyguards. The delegation were seen running for their cars and a Bosnian government source later said they had left the site.

“This is a scandalous attack and I can say it can be seen as an assassination attempt,” the Serbian interior minister, Nebojša Stefanović, said on Serbian Pink television. “Bosnia has failed to create even the minimal conditions for the safety of the prime minister.”

The Srebrenica massacre was the worst in Europe since the Holocaust and was later defined as a genocide by two international courts. This week, Russia vetoed a proposed UN resolution that called the event a genocide, sparking a diplomatic row with Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Dozens of foreign dignitaries, including Britain’s Princess Anne, the former US president Bill Clinton, Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, and Jordan’s Queen Noor, were due to attend the event.

Serbia, which backed Bosnian Serb forces with soldiers and funding during the war, last week enlisted its ally Russia to veto the British-backed UN resolution that would have condemned the denial of Srebrenica as genocide, as a UN court had ruled it was.

Saturday’s ceremony was set to include the funeral of 136 newly found victims, who were to be buried at a memorial centre alongside a mass grave of more than 6,000.

Read more: Srebrenica crowds drive Serbian prime minister from anniversary event | World news | The Guardian

Germany: Germans will never forget ‘unfathomable horrors’ at death camps, says Merkel

Germans will never forget the “unfathomable horrors” the Nazis inflicted at death camps.

The words of Chancellor Angela Merkel, as she addressed a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp near Munich.

In a moving speech to 120 elderly survivors from 20 nations and six US soldiers who helped liberate the camp, Merkel said Dachau and other death camps freed near the end of World War Two stand as eternal reminders of the Nazi regime’s brutality.

“These former concentration camps have come into public focus in recent weeks with the passing of the 70th anniversaries of the liberation of one camp after another,” Merkel said at Dachau, now a memorial with 800-thousand annual visitors.

“There were unfathomable horrors everywhere,” she continued.
“They all admonish us to never forget. No, we will never forget. We’ll not forget for the sake of the victims, for our own sake, and for the sake of future generations.”

Read more: Germans will never forget ‘unfathomable horrors’ at death camps, says Merkel | euronews, world news

Armenia - Turkey: was it "Genocide" or are there two sides to this story ?

Professor Edward Erickson, an authority on the Ottoman army during World War I, claims that there is no substantial evidence to support labeling the counterinsurgency operation against Armenians in 1915 as a genocide, but neither is there enough evidence to support a denial of the label.

Regardless of how we refer to the event, it is now of interest to historians, and the current Armenian endeavor to convince parliaments of different countries to pass genocide recognition bills, to come up with some better factual information, before everyone starts jumping to conclusions

Erickson, whose 2013 book “Ottomans and Armenians: A Study in Counterinsurgency” was the first account from a military perspective of the forced relocations, or “Tehcir" in Turkish, shared his views on what actually happened a hundred years ago.

A retired US army officer, Erickson delved into the Turkish archives and researched extensively before writing his book. He concluded that the Tehcir was vital, as it allowed the Ottoman government to disaffiliate insurgents from "Entente" (European powers), had posed a threat to the existence of the empire.

Frankly, the Armenian revolutionary committees were unsuccessful in achieving their goals; in the end they were crushed, and the majority of the Ottoman Armenians were either dead or refugees.

One of the major reasons for the failure of the committees was that the Armenian revolutionary committees were never a popularly supported movement among the majority of Ottoman Armenians, who were law abiding Turkish citizens. In order to be successful, a revolutionary movement must have a base of popular support and the Armenian revolutionary committees never had that.

The Ottoman government forced about 400,000 Ottoman Armenians to relocate. These Armenians mostly lived in six eastern provinces and in key cities along the army's lines of communication.

Since the Ottoman government and army were unable to determine which Armenians were actively supporting the committees and which Armenians were not. They erred on the side of what they believed to be national security, and relocated all of them from selected locations.

In 1917, there were still over 350,000 Ottoman Armenians living in their own homes in what is western Turkey today.

The successful inclusion of any minority in the political process is problematic at best. Simply having a few representatives in parliament cannot change the fundamental mismatch of political power.

The successful inclusion of any minority in the political process is problematic at best. Simply having a few representatives in parliament cannot change the fundamental mismatch of political power.

The Ottomans felt obliged to adopt a brand-new method to quell the Armenian insurrection, a method that was expressed in a decree by the government on May 31,1915. In what ways was this new method different from the counterinsurgency methods the Ottomans had resorted to throughout their history?

This was the first time the Ottoman government did not have sufficient military forces available to deal with rebellion. Traditionally, the Ottomans dealt with rebellion by sending in the army. In the spring of 1915, without the army in its normal garrisons, the Ministry of War had to find an alternative to the use of force.

The relocation of the Armenians from the rear areas of the eastern war zones was the solution of choice. While relocation was a new approach for the Ottoman Empire, in fact, it had been widely practiced by the Great Powers.

Confronting the past has nothing to do with it. It is important to consider that the Ottoman government in 1915 did not “invent” population removal as a way to deal with rebellion. It was widely used in practice by many of the Great Powers before World War I. We must also not forget that the government did not deport the Ottoman Armenians (deportation is permanent) and that the government intended to allow them to return to their homes after the war.

The relocations would not have happened if well-known leaders of the revolutionary committees (Andranik [Ozanian], Dro [Drastamat Kanayan] and Boghos Nubar, for example had not aligned themselves (and the committees) with the Russians, British, and French.

 Keep in mind that most Ottoman Armenians, and even many of the committee members, wanted the Ottoman Armenian population to remain law abiding and support the Ottoman government in 1914. They understood that rebellion would likely result in the destruction of Armenian lives and property. However, the actions of a few influential individuals brought great suffering to the majority of Ottoman Armenians, who were innocent bystanders.

Tens of thousands of Armenians died during the relocation  Were the Ottomans taking some kind of revenge?

There are number of explanations of why this happened. Many historians believe that hatred and jealousy against the Ottoman Armenians had built up over several generations. This made it easier for the numerous atrocities to happen.

There is absolutely no question that the Ottoman government did not fully consider what might happen to the hundreds of thousands of relocated Armenians. There is no doubt that the government did not have the resources to protect, feed and care for the huge numbers of Armenians under its care.

The relocations were badly managed and under resourced. The relocation convoys became easy targets for both criminal gangs and poorly supervised provincial officials. Let us also say that the Hamidiye cavalry regiments had long since been disestablished by the Ministry of War, but it is very likely that many of the renegades and criminals who preyed on the convoys were ex-Hamidiye cavalrymen.

Some historians argue that the Special Organization (Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa) opted to let things worsen and even facilitated the mass killings of civilian Armenians en route to the camps. Are these claims substantiated by historical facts?

The Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa  played no part in the relocations or the massacres of Armenians that accompanied the relocations and convoys.

Recent scholarly work by Dr. Ahmet Tetik and Ph.D. candidate Polat Safi establish that the SO had no part of this. The case against the SO was constructed by Vahakn Dadrian from a textual analysis of the 1919 newspaper accounts of the 1919 İstanbul show trials of individuals accused of war crimes. Dadrian's thesis is incorrect.

The CUP was a secret revolutionary group that did not oppose the use of terror to achieve its goals. The inner circle of the CUP had overthrown the Ottoman government and there is no question that Enver and the other CUP leaders knew exactly how dangerous secret revolutionary committees could be.

Enver and the leadership of the SO were also knowledgeable about guerrilla and irregular warfare, which also caused them to worry about the Armenian revolutionary committees' activities in 1915.

Whether it was a genocide or not. It might have been a genocide or it might not have been a genocide. To be honest, there is no authentic evidence (a paper trail of documents) today proving that this was a top-down, state-sponsored campaign of annihilation. However, neither can the reverse -- that it was not a genocide -- has been totally proven either.

What I assert is that the Armenian population of six provinces, as well as selected individuals elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire who were considered dangerous, were relocated for military reasons related to the perception that a large-scale Armenian insurgency , coordinated with and supported by the Russians, was about to erupt.

Bottom-line seems to be that this group of Armenians was not relocated to be killed; they were relocated as a precautionary military measure. In the absence of full evidence, it is premature to attach a label such as genocide to what happened in 1915.

Ottoman Armenians from all provinces and cities were relocated, mostly from the six eastern provinces.

However, many Armenians in the western provinces were excluded from relocation, such as Protestant and Catholic Armenians, also Armenians who worked on the railroad system, and also Armenian government officials and Armenian officers and soldiers (and their families). When the Ottoman government, however, thought, that Ottoman Armenian had links to, or was sympathetic toward, the committees, they were relocated.

Most Ottoman Armenians were law-abiding Ottoman empire citizens who had no interest in rebellion.

The mobilization and war plans, which were aimed at external threats, did not consider the Ottoman Armenians as an internal threat. It was only after an escalating series of incidents, including small rebellions and small landings on the Mediterranean coast by the British navy in early 1915, that the committees came to be seen as dangerous.

It is beyond doubt that the Armenian revolutionary committees in eastern Anatolia possessed the capability and the capacity to interdict the Ottoman army's lines of communications. What does this mean? Simply, there were small numbers of Armenians in key locations who had the ability to block and obstruct the flow of supplies (food, fodder and ammunition) to the Third Army, which was fighting the Russians.

If this had been allowed to happened, the Third Army would grow progressively weaker and would be unable to stop the Russians. The Ottoman military staffs believed that this was happening in March and April 1915 and they had plenty of reports as evidence.

Consequently the Ottoman government took action (relocations) to prevent this from happening. The relocations and elimination of the committees can be compared to cutting out a cancer before it metastasizes.

In American history, George Washington is a hero, but he was also a traitor to the British King George III. Washington's side won the war. Robert E. Lee, a famous confederate general, was also seen as a  traitor. His side lost the war.

So, whether one calls rebels, insurgents and guerrillas “traitors” depends on who wins or loses the war.

There is no question that the small numbers of Ottoman Armenians who engaged in rebellion, terrorism or who fought alongside the Russians were seen as traitors to the political entity known as the Ottoman Empire of which they were citizens.

The Ottoman army commanders and staffs saw the hostile activities of the Ottoman Armenians as evidence of military operations that were coordinated with and supported by the Russians. The Ottomans viewed the external operations of the Russian army and Armenian Druzhiny [legions] as complementary to the internal hostile

Opening up all of the archives on both sides of the argument will be good but probably won't accomplish much. Historians will never be able to agree conclusively about what actually happened. There will always be those who believe there was a genocide and those who think that it was something else.“

Open” archives is also an ambiguous and relative term. The Turkish archives are open, but it is very hard to gain access to because of the paperwork involved. For example, research in any Turkish archives by a foreigner requires a special visa from the Foreign Ministry.

US and EU archives do not require a special visa and anyone can walk in and get a research card.

Moreover, the Turkish military archives are located inside the military compounds in Ankara and one cannot just “walk in” like at the US archives in College Park, Maryland or in to EU archives in Bruxelles.  in Kew.

That said, however, the Turkish archives are “more open” than the Armenian archives or the records of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which are not open to International scholars.

Some historians say that the Armenian archives are not open to researchers because  they contain information confirming that the Armenian revolutionary committees were engaged in an actual conspiracy with the Russians and the committees intended to conduct a coordinated joint offensive against the Ottoman Empire.

This is obviously only a guess on the part of some historians but it does make sense.

The official Turkish government position today is that more research is needed to fully understand what happened.

President Erdoğan has called for a joint historical commission to investigate the events of 1915.

Essentially, this also means the Turkish government has moved away from a position of total denial  (“it never happened”) to a more realistic position of “we don't really know what happened and we are willing to support historical research to discover the truth.” This is a good position.

Regarding the diplomacy surrounding the  issue. Today's Republic of Turkey was not in existence in 1915 and probably ought to totally ignore accusations on the subject until their has been an international and neutral, possibly UN study  done on the subject.

Parliaments cannot legislate history by voting on resolutions re: the Armenian genocide, which are not based on accurate facts and figures.

Parliamentary recognition, or the Pope's statements about the so-called Armenian genocide really don't mean too much or carry a lot of weight in the modern world of today, unless it supported by massive evidence - which so far it has not 

Turkey and Armenia will need to request the UN to do an in-depth study on the issue resulting in a binding conclusion to finally end this drama of mutual accusations.

EU-Digest

Middle East - Mideast's religious minorities at risk of 'genocide'

Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities in the Middle East are being targeted and some are facing a possible "genocide" by Islamic State militants, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told the UN on Friday.

Speaking at a UN Security Council debate, Fabius said an "action charter" was needed to address the threat from the Islamic State group.

"We are witnessing a true genocide," Fabius said. "The Islamic State group in particular kills, enslaves or exiles people who don't think like them, especially Christians. It's not enough to raise awareness – we need to implement concrete solutions to protect these vulnerable populations."

Read more: Middle East - Mideast's religious minorities at risk of 'genocide' - France 24

Genocide: People of Kobane paying a high price for western (Turkish) 'neutrality' - by Alan Shatter

Over the past three weeks it is estimated that over 100,000 residents have fled into Turkey from Kobane, the Syrian/Kurdish town on Turkey's border, and from surrounding villages, as the town was threatened and then attacked by Islamic State (Isil) fighters.

The black flag of Islamic State is now erected on a hill overlooking Kobane and its Kurdish defenders are desperately fighting a rear-guard action to save the town with sporadic air support from the United States and its coalition allies. The defence mounted by the YPG, the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is unlikely to succeed without the assistance of boots on the ground provided by the US and its allies, or by a Turkey reluctant to join the fight for fear of immediate consequences, that is Islamic State cells adding to the increasing unrest in Turkey and threatening Turkey's internal stability.

However, for Turkey, viewing the takeover of Kobane from its border and doing nothing is resulting in the unrest and instability it feared.

Kurds living in Turkey are understandably outraged and fearful that if nothing is done there will be a massacre of Kurds in Kobane and a repetition by Islamic State forces of the barbaric executions, beheadings and rapes perpetrated in other less visible parts of Syria and in Iraq, where the UN has attested there have been gross human rights violations.

It seems, at present, that the international community will stand by and watch while war crimes and genocide is perpetrated by Islamic jihadists on NATO's border.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has been reported as stating that preventing the fall of Kobane is not a strategic US objective. This apparently is so, no matter what horrors are destined to befall the town's remaining inhabitants.

At the same time, we learned that Syria in recent days acknowledged the existence of four chemical weapons facilities not previously admitted, which Sigrid Kaag, a special representative of the UN Secretary General, told the Security Council this week involved three facilities used for research and one for production.

Clearly Syrian President Assad is in violation of last year's agreement to eliminate chemical weapons. It is also now known that the Assad regime 'systematically' used chlorine in 'repetitive' attacks on its enemies as recently as this August.

What remains uncertain is whether Islamic State fighters have acquired any of Assad's chemical weapons and, if so, how and where they have been or may be deployed. That is another dilemma for the US, Europe, NATO, the Iraqi government and Turkey.

Looking the other way while men, women and children are slaughtered in Kobane may be perceived as a pragmatic response to avoid being distracted from a greater strategic objective but, in reality, it tragically illustrates the extent to which the international community, including Turkey, has lost its moral compass and abandoned its commitment to human rights principles.

The scale of the atrocities likely to be perpetrated in Kobane in the coming days will be far greater than the horrors of Srebrenica from which the international community and, more particularly, the Dutch, walked away.

Read more: People of Kobane paying a high price for our 'neutrality' - Independent.ie

France - its all about liberté, égalité, fraternité - France's Armenia genocide law put on hold

France's new law punishing denial of the Armenian genocide was put on hold Tuesday after politicians opposed to the legislation demanded that its constitutionality be examined.

On Tuesday two separate groups of French politicians who oppose the legislation -- from both the Senate and the lower house of parliament -- said they had formally requested the constitutional council to examine the law.

The groups said they each had gathered more than the minimum 60 signatures required to ask the council to test the law's constitutionality.

"This is an atomic bomb for the Elysee (Sarkozy's office) which didn't see it coming," said deputy Lionel Tardy, who said that most of the 65 signatories from the lower house were, like him, from Sarkozy's UMP party.

Note EU-Digest: whatever the arguments are about this proposed and controversial law - the issue mainly relates to, on the one hand, constitutionally established French laws on freedom of speech, and on the other hand, the infringement this law could have on it. Passing this so-called genocide law would certainly put a blemish on what the rest of the world considers one of the highest ideals embodied in the French revolution: liberté, égalité, fraternité. This famous phrase obviously also greatly impacts on the right to freedom of speech. By throwing this undemocratic genocide law off the table France would not only show the World it still respects its hard fought revolutionary and democratic ideals, but in the same breath also teach the two countries in question ( Armenia and Turkey) a lesson or two about the importance of freedom of speech. 
 
For more: AFP: France's Armenia genocide law put on hold

France passes general genocide law, faces Turkish reprisals

Lawmakers in the French upper house (Senate) voted 127 to 86 in favor of the draft law outlawing genocide denial after almost six hours of debate. The lower house had backed it in December, prompting Ankara to cancel all economic, political and military meetings with Paris and recall its ambassador for consultations.

The bill had been made more general so that it outlawed the denial of any genocide, partly in the hope of appeasing the Turks. It now goes to President Nicolas Sarkozy to be ratified.

"This day will be written in gold not only in the history of friendship between the Armenian and French peoples, but also in the annals of the history of the protection of human rights," said Armenia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edward Nalbandian.

Note EU-Digest: Armenian Foreign Affairs Minister Edward Nalbandian should "simmer down" with his compliments to France, since this new law does not single out Armenia. It is also clear that the wording of this French law will turn it into a political can of worms. Being that this new French genocide law is quite general in its wording and can be interpreted in favor of any nation or race on earth which feels it has suffered genocide applied to them by a foreign power. Algerians could possibly apply it to France, Indonesia against the Netherlands, India and Kenya against Britain or American native Americans against the US Government. If Turkey reacts too aggressively and personally to this new general genocide French law, their reaction could possibly also backfire politically for them. For as the saying goes: "if the shoe fits wear it". 
 
For more: France passes general genocide law, faces Turkish reprisals | Reuters

AlterNet: European Arms Manufacturers Pump Weapons into Troubled Regions - by David Cronia

For the complete report from AlterNet click on this link

European Arms Manufacturers Pump Weapons into Troubled Regions

Despite the EU code of conduct, European corporations continue to supply the world's most dangerous groups with arms. A stronger law is needed.Located in the west of the country, Eldoret is also home to an ammunition factory opened in the mid-1990s by the Belgian company FN Herstal. The plant has been blamed earlier for providing supplies to armed factions in the genocide that swept through Rwanda in 1994. Now Amnesty International has documented human rights violations by Kenyan forces using weapons manufactured at the same site. The continued involvement of a firm from the European Union in Kenya comes despite a decade-old EU code of conduct on arms sales. The code stipulates that licenses to export weapons cannot be issued if there is a threat they will be used for internal repression or in armed conflicts. But because the bullets in Eldoret are made outside the EU, they are not covered by the code.

The EU's governments agreed in 2005 to make compliance with it mandatory. Yet the formal steps needed to give effect to that decision have not yet been taken, largely due to the stance adopted by France. Paris has indicated it would only be prepared to agree to upgrade the code's legal status when an EU arms embargo on China, imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, is lifted.

New Statesman - Israel - Bringing down the new Berlin Walls - by John Pilger

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Israel - Bringing down the new Berlin Walls - by John Pilger

The recent breakout of the people of Gaza provided a heroic spectacle unlike any other since the Warsaw ghetto uprising and the smashing down of the Berlin Wall. Whereas on the occupied West Bank, Ariel Sharon's master plan of walling in the population and stealing their land and resources has all but succeeded, requiring only a Palestinian Vichy to sign it off, the people of Gaza have defied their tormentors, however briefly, and it is a guarantee they will do so again. There is profound symbolism in their achievement, touching lives and hopes all over the world. "[Sharon's] fate for us," wrote Karma Nabulsi, a Palestinian, "was a Hobbesian vision of an anarchic society: truncated, violent, powerless, destroyed, cowed, ruled by disparate militias, gangs, religious ideologues and extremists, broken up into ethnic and religious tribalism, and co-opted [by] collaborationists. Look to the Iraq of today - that is what he had in store for us and he nearly achieved it." Israel's and America's experiments in mass suffering nearly achieved it. There was First Rains, the code name for a terror of sonic booms that came every night and sent Gazan children mad. There was Summer Rains, which showered bombs and missiles on civilians, then extrajudicial executions, and finally a land invasion. Ehud Barak, the current Israeli defence minister, has tried every kind of blockade: the denial of electricity for water and sewage pumps, incubators and dialysis machines and the denial of fuel and food to a population of mostly malnourished children.

EU Business; EU slams Israel's 'collective punishment' in Gaza

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EU slams Israel's 'collective punishment' in Gaza

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner hit out at Israel Monday, slamming its blockade of the strife-torn Gaza Strip as "collective punishment". "I am against this collective punishment of the people of Gaza. I urge the Israeli authorities to restart fuel supplies and open the crossings for the passage of humanitarian and commercial supplies," she said in a statement. Gaza's sole power plant shut down overnight for want of fuel as a punishing four-day Israeli blockade on the Hamas-run territory threatened to spark a humanitarian crisis.Ferrero-Waldner, while also condemning rocket attacks on Israeli territory, said the decision to close all border crossings into Gaza as well as to stop the provision of fuel "will exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip."

IHT: Serbia considers retaliatory steps against West if Kosovo breaks free

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Serbia considers retaliatory steps against West if Kosovo breaks free

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica condemned the United States on Wednesday for supporting the independence of Kosovo as Parliament debated a measure that would sever diplomatic ties with Western countries that recognized the province's statehood.The measure in Parliament, proposed by Kostunica's government, rejects the idea of the European Union's setting up a mission in Kosovo before the status of the breakaway province is resolved. The resolution threatens to halt Serbian integration into the European Union if Kosovo gains statehood, and denounces NATO and the West for their alleged support of separatists in Kosovo.

Ethnic Albanians, who make up about 90 percent of the two million people in Kosovo, have said they will proclaim independence early in 2008.The leader of the opposition Liberal Party, Cedomir Jovanovic, who does not oppose Kosovo's independence, said the resolution represented "a blow to Serbia's ambitions to become a EU member."

Comment EU-Digest: Mr. Jovanovic is right and on top of that the Serbs have also not delivered Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic to the International Court of Justice. Serbia's war against Bosnia and Croatia between 1991 and 1995 was characterized by appalling acts of systematic violence against civilians. The use of ethnic cleansing and other genocidal tactics by Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic as a policy tool for partitioning Bosnia and Croatia and establishing a new population balance favorable to the Serbs in ethnically-cleansed territories shocked the international community.