Day: February 16, 2024
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NPR News: 02-16-2024 3PM EST
eurasianet.org: The ruling elite has leveraged the bogeyman of Islamic extremism to cast itself as the guardian of a secular and stable Azerbaijani state to rationalize the adoption of more autocratic policies both domestically and internationally.
In December the U.S. State Department for the first time placed Azerbaijan on…
Hundreds of protesters have gathered in Armenia and Georgia following the announcement by Russian authorities that the Russian opposition leader, Aleksey Navalny, had died in prison.
The Russian Penitentiary Service announced that Navalny, who survived poisoning with the Russian nerve agent Novichok before he was imprisoned in 2021, had died on Friday.
Demonstrations marked by tears and anger were organised by Russians in Tbilisi, Batumi, and Yerevan on Friday evening, just hours after the news broke.
In Yerevan, protesters gathered near the Russian embassy, after police prevented them from approaching the building.
The Free Russia flag held outside the Russian Embassy in Yerevan. Photo: Arshaluys Barseghyan/OC Media.
The crowds chanted Navalny’s name, anti-war and anti-Putin slogans, ‘Russia will be free’, and more.
‘I’m angry; I’m mostly angry, then sad’, one demonstrator named Nikolay told OC Media, adding that he was grateful that in Armenia he was able to express his feelings openly.
‘We expected it, but the feelings are still anger, rage, grief’, said another demonstrator, Mikhail Yershov.
Mikhail Yershov (left). The woman in the centre gestured to the poster stating: ‘this is purely my emotions now, it’s very painful’. Photo: Arshaluys Barseghyan/OC Media.
Many protesters cried and embraced, while some laid flowers and candles at a nearby park. Photo: Arshaluys Barseghyan/OC Media.
‘We learned today with great sorrow about the terrible news that Navalny was killed in prison’, said another demonstrator, Darina Mayadskaya. ‘We could not stay home, and I think everyone else here realised that they needed to express their condolences and support to each other’, she added. ‘To me, as to many people, this seems like a last desperate step, appearing only in terrifying nightmares.’
In Tbilisi, a demonstration was held outside the Russian Interests Section at the Swiss Embassy. Georgia severed diplomatic relations with Russia after the 2008 August War.
Demonstrators in Tbilisi lit candles and laid flowers. Photo: Tata Shoshiashvili/OC Media.
‘He went to heaven and you’ll just croak it.’ Photo: Tata Shoshiashvili/OC Media.
One protester who asked to remain anonymous told OC Media that Navalny’s death came as a shock to her.
‘What brought me [here]? It’s shock, because everything has its limits’, she said. ‘We Russians endure for a very long time, but there is some point of no return’.
She said that she was worried for the fate of other political prisoners in Russia.
‘Navalny felt great just yesterday; on 12 February he met his mother and looked good, joked and so on. This simply means that he was killed, like Boris Nemtsov’, she said.
Boris Nemtsov was a liberal politician and ardent critic of Vladamir Putin who was gunned down in the street near the Kremlin in Moscow in 2015.
Political reactions
Following news of Navalny’s death, Western leaders including America’s Biden, the EU’s Charles Michel, and Germany’s Scholz were quick to point the finger at Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Alexei @navalny fought for the values of freedom and democracy. For his ideals, he made the ultimate sacrifice.
The EU holds the Russian regime for sole responsible for this tragic death.
I extend my deepest condolences to his family. And to those who fight for democracy around…
— Charles Michel (@CharlesMichel) February 16, 2024
Despite the growing rift between Armenia and Russia, Armenian authorities have so far remained silent, as have those in Azerbaijan.
In Georgia, President Salome Zurabishvili was quick to speak out, calling Navalny’s death a ‘tragedy for all democracy and human rights defenders’.
Protesters in Tbilisi vowed to continue to oppose Putin, chanting Navalny’s name and insisting they would not forget him. Photo: Tata Shoshiashvili/OC Media.
The demonstration in Tbilisi. Photo: Tata Shoshiashvili/OC Media.
The ruling Georgian Dream party, however, were less explicit. Asked by journalists if Navalny was the latest victim of Putin, Mamuka Mdinaradze, the party’s parliamentary leader, answered that ‘of course’ he was, before going on to speak about the opposition.
‘We should not forget that it reminds us, also very unfortunately, of the hundreds of prisoners who died in our prison before 2012’, he said.
Confronted by journalists, the speaker of parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, said only that he ‘cannot have any comments on this issue’.
Opposition leaders in Georgia were more outspoken.
The United National Movement issued a statement praising Navalny for returning ‘to fight against Putin’s dictatorship and murderous regime’ despite the danger to his life. ‘Putin is cowardly eliminating all his political opponents thus killing any prospects of democracy in Russia’, they wrote.
The party’s founder, former president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is serving a prison sentence for abuse of power, wrote: ‘Navalny is gone. Am I the next one on Putin’s death row?’ He wrote. ‘I often disagreed with him, and Putin often compared us and hated both of us equally’, he added.
The leader of the opposition Droa Party, Elene Khoshtaria, wrote on X that Navalny’s death was a ‘testament to the true, brutal, callous nature of #Russia and #Putin’.
#Navalny’s death is a testament to the true, brutal, callous nature of #Russia and #Putin.
The #Kremlin is a death machine that must be compelled.
Whatever your thoughts about his political positions, Navalny gave his life for what he believed was right.
ARM UKRAINE NOW to…— Helen Khoshtaria (@Helenkhosh) February 16, 2024
Giorgi Gakharia, a former Prime Minister and now leader of the For Georgia party, expressed condolence to Navalny’s family and friends writing that his death in prison was a ‘poignant symbol of #Russia’s enduring modernised #totalitarianism’. ‘It kills, both at home and abroad. It is danger to both human and international security’, he wrote.
The post Anger and grief as Russians in Armenia and Georgia mourn Navalny’s death appeared first on OC Media.
The polar and high mountain regions of the earth are warming at nearly twice the rate of Europe, and two-and-a-half times the global average. This can have profound consequences on earth’s weather including, for example, the supply of fresh water from melting snowcaps at places such as Armenia. In April 2012 the “Virtual Alpine Observatory,” a networked collaboration of international research organizations operating high-altitude observatories and research stations, was established and has been studying this situation.
Cross-border cooperation has made it possible to study problems related to the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and cryosphere to determine the environmental impact on human health and well-being. All these spheres are interlinked. Changes in one can affect the others. Participating are research institutes and observatories in Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Norway, Slovenia, and Switzerland.
The Cosmic Ray Division’s accession certificate from the Chair of the VAO, Dr. Michael Krautblatter, welcoming CRD as a member of the VAODr. Johannes Knapp, a scientist at the DESY research center in Germany, and member of the international board of directors of the Aragats Space Environment Center of the Yerevan Physics Institute’s Cosmic Ray Division, on October 26, 2023 accepted CRD’s accession certificate from the Chair of the VAO, Prof. Dr. Michael Krautblatter. The CRD is now a VAO associate member. The VAO is a subproject of the European Neighborhood Policy. As a statement by the VAO indicated, “That environmental and climate challenges are transboundary interdependent by nature, and therefore require a holistic approach to address them.”
CRD will participate in VAO’s interdisciplinary study of Alpine warming. Measurements of various parameters at different locations will be collected, put into formats according to international standards, and shared. Moreover, analysis and visualization tools will be developed to access this data at VAO’s high performance computing centers. CRD operates two high altitude research stations on Mt. Aragats: Aragats station at 3200 m (10,500 ft), and Nor Ambert at 2,000 m (6,560 ft). Here a large number of meteorological, geophysical, and atmospheric processes are monitored, including electrical events in the atmosphere. Data from these measurements are put on the internet in near real time together with analytical tools.
Dr. Knapp is professor at Deutches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Germany, where he specializes in astroparticle physics. He is chairman of the Aragats Space Environment Center Board of Directors, and is a frequent visitor to Armenia.