Day: January 15, 2024

Tanzania said the decision was taken in retaliation for Kenya’s denial of rights to Tanzania national carrier Air Tanzania to operate cargo flights between the two countries.  

In a statement, the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority said it decided “to rescind the approvals for Kenya Airways to operate passenger flights between Nairobi and Dar es Salaam … with effect from 22 January 2024.” 

“This is to reciprocate the decision by the aeronautical authorities of the Republic of Kenya to refuse the Tanzania request for all-cargo flight operations by Air Tanzania Company.” 

TCAA also said Kenya’s decision to decline Air Tanzania’s request for cargo flights violated a 2016 Memorandum of Understating between both countries on air services.  

In a statement, Kenya Airways said it was aware of the ban on its flights and was engaging aviation authorities in both countries “to find a solution that will ensure there are no flight disruptions between Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.” 

Kenya Airways is one of Africa’s largest airlines. Tanzania, where attractions include mountains and vast wildlife reserves that teem with game, draws more than a million tourists a year, making it one of its biggest markets. 

The clash between Tanzania and Kenya adds to a growing number of trade and commercial disputes between members of the East African Community, a regional bloc that operates a customs union. 

Kenya has previously complained about cheap products from neighboring Uganda and blocked some, including milk and sugar, drawing protests from Kampala.  

Landlocked Uganda has also taken Kenya to a regional court over a dispute related to the importation of petroleum products. 

Although Air Tanzania is a small airline, in recent years authorities have been trying to expand its fleet, routes and operations to earn a bigger share of revenues from the region’s aviation business. 

Hogir Najar, a media official at the Kurdish-run autonomous administration, told Reuters that at least 40 sites had been hit in Turkish shelling in the last two days, including power stations, water pumping stations and oil infrastructure.

Najar said at least 10 border towns were without power or water as a result.

Syrian state television also reported the strikes Monday, saying a Turkish drone had hit the Dirbasiyah power station and that the Turkish air bombardment hit a power transfer station in the main town of Qamishli. Two water stations were also put out of service as Turkish strikes on Monday had cut off their electricity supply, Syria’s state news agency SANA said.

Turkey has conducted military incursions and bombing campaigns in Syria against the Kurdish YPG, which it regards as a wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984.

Turkeys defense ministry confirmed it conducted air strikes in northern Iraq and northern Syria over the weekend after nine Turkish soldiers were killed in a clash with the outlawed PKK in northern Iraq.

The airstrikes destroyed targets consisting of caves, shelters and depots as well as a natural gas production facility, the ministry said in a statement Sunday.

Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT) also mounted strikes on PKK and YPG targets in Syria, state-run Anadolu Agency said Sunday. The strikes targeted military bases and critical infrastructure facilities including oil and natural gas facilities believed to be used for financing of the PKK, according to Anadolu.

“The power station hurt a few hundred meters away from my house was hit last year, last month, and today too,” said Hussein Seifo, a resident of the city of Qamishli.

“Every time it’s fixed, it gets bombed again. We’re afraid for our children after the last two days,” he told Reuters by phone. 

The International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA), the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) and the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center will host Literary Lights 2024, their second annual monthly reading series featuring new works of literature by Armenian authors. Each event—held online—will feature a writer reading from their work, followed by a discussion with an interviewer and audience members. 

Keep an eye on IALA’s website and socials for the exact dates of each event. Click here to read along with the series by purchasing titles from IALA’s online bookstore powered by Bookshop.

Register to attend the launch of Literary Lights 2024 featuring Tololyan Literary Prize recipient Aida Zilelian, author of All the Ways We Lied. Zilelian will be joined by Nancy Agabian, author of Princess Freak (2000), Me as Her Again: True Stories of an Armenian Daughter (2008) and the ​​PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction finalist, The Fear of Large and Small Nations (2023). The event will take place on Zoom on January 27, 2024 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern.

By turns heartfelt and heart-wrenching, All the Ways We Lied introduces a cast of tragically flawed but lovable characters on the brink of unraveling. With humor and compassion, this spellbinding tale explores the fraught and contradictory landscape of sisterhood, introducing four unforgettable women who have nothing in common, and are bound by blood and history. Learn more about the novel and author.

Authors featured on Literary Lights 2024:

All the Ways We Lied by Aida Zilelian

Tololyan Literary Prize recipient Aida Zilelian explores the reality of love and loss in the everyday lives of a modern-day Armenian family in her forthcoming novel, All the Ways We Lied.

Available at: Bookshop.org | Abril Books | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Kew & Willow Books | Astoria Bookshop. Learn more here.

The Prospectors by Ariel Djanikian

Selected by Barnes & Noble as their book-of-the-month for October, Ariel Djanikian’s newly-released The Prospectors is a sweeping rags-to-riches story of survival and greed across American history following a family transformed by the Klondike Gold Rush.

Available at: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | HarperCollins | Kobo. Learn more here.

BÁBO by Astrid Kamalyan and Anait Semirdzhyan

Join Tato and her family as they help Bábo (grandmother) on rug-washing day in this sweet and playful picture book tribute to Armenian cultural traditions. A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection that has earned starred reviews from Kirkus, The Horn Book and Publishers Weekly, Bábo was selected as one of the New York Public Library’s 2023 Best Books for Kids.

Available at: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Penguin Random House | Abril Books. Learn more here.

Lost Words by Leila Boukarim and Sona Avedikian

What is it like to walk away from your home? To leave behind everything and everyone you’ve ever known? Poetic, sensitive and based on a true family history, this picture book follows a young Armenian boy from the day he sets out to find refuge to the day he finally finds the courage to share his story.

Preorder at: Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Amazon. Learn more here.

The Palace of Forty Pillars by Armen Davoudian

Wry, tender and formally innovative, Armen Davoudian’s forthcoming debut poetry collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, tells the story of a self estranged from the world around him as a gay adolescent, an Armenian in Iran and an immigrant in America.

Preorder at: Tin House | Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon. Learn more here.

Jagadakeer: Apology to the Body by Lory Bedikian

Winner of the 2023 Raz-Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry, Jagadakeer: Apology to the Body builds a eulogy in poems, claiming loss, the body’s failure, often interrupted with monologues and rants. The voice is that of a daughter of immigrant parents from Lebanon and Syria, of Armenian descent, now gone.  

Preorder at: Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Amazon.

Author information

International Armenian Literary Alliance

The International Armenian Literary Alliance is a nonprofit organization launched in 2021 that supports and celebrates writers by fostering the development and distribution of Armenian literature in the English language. A network of Armenian writers and their champions, IALA gives Armenian writers a voice in the literary world through creative, professional, and scholarly advocacy.

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