Day: April 1, 2024
Iranian officials accuse Israel of a deadly attack on Iran’s consulate in Syria Capital Public Radio News
In response to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the Collective Security Treaty Organization said that it will defend a member states only if its borders are recognized by that country’s neighbors, adding an additional wrinkle –and a loophole—to its ongoing and escalating dispute with Yerevan.
The CSTO was responding to repeated questions by Pashinyan, who has said that the Russian-led security bloc must clarify its “zone of responsibility” and has threatened Armenia’s withdrawal from the organization. The prime minister has criticized the group for not honoring its commitments when Azerbaijan invaded Armenia’s sovereign territory in 2021 and 2022.
The CSTO to the Russian RBK news channel that it considers its area of responsibility in Armenia to be its sovereign territory within the regulated national borders, the CSTO told RBC.
“The phrase ‘zone of responsibility’ is quite complex and it is more intended to draw attention to the situation in the republic than to obtain a substantive answer,” the Russian RBK news agency quoted an unnamed CSTO representative as saying. “Because according to the 2010 agreement on the principles of interaction, which was signed by the CSTO, the zone of responsibility is the sovereign territory of the member states.”
“The CSTO zone of responsibility ends at the state border which is settled on a bilateral basis between Armenia and its neighbors,” added the official.
Azerbaijan has declined to recognize Armenia’s territorial integrity in the same vein –and enthusiasm—as Pashinyan, who repeatedly said that Yerevan recognizes Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, that included Baku’s rule over Artsakh.
There is also a Russia-mediate effort to delimit and demarcate the borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan, hence leaving unclear where the borders of each country begins. Official Baku is claiming that the territories invaded in 2021 and 2022 belong to Azerbaijan, yet there are Armenian territories currently being occupied within Azerbaijan.
The CSTO’s statement essentially let the organization off the hook, amplifying a loophole that further complicates the situation, and presumably relations between Yerevan and the security bloc.
The 19th century St. Mary’s Church in Sepastia (Sivas) has been placed on the market by a Turkish realtor with an asking price of $500,000.
According to Ermenihaber news agency, after the Armenian Genocide the church became the property of a local resident named Hatice Akay, who engaged a realtor to sell the property.
Built in the 19th century, the St. Mary’s Church is located in the Goydun village in what is now the Sivas province of Turkey, known as Sepastia. In 2012, the church was registered as cultural protected property, meaning its sale would be prohibited by Turkish laws.
The church has carved crosses in its exterior and interior walls and is built in consecrated stones.
The real estate agent, however, told the DHA news agency that there is a certificate of ownership and there are no obstacles in the sale of this church.
“The church is a protected area of the first degree and is under protection. We have put it on the market today and we are asking 16 million liras [around $500,000] for it,” the real estate agent added.
The proposed sale of the church has triggered anger among both the local community and Christian groups in Turkey.
An investigation has been launched by George Aslan, a Syriac member of the Turkish parliament representing the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), who has demanded answers regarding this violation from Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, the Syriac Press reported on Monday.
Aslan emphasized that the sale of Christian churches, monasteries, and places of worship is deeply insulting to Christian citizens.
“It is the government’s responsibility to prevent such sales and preserve these historical religious sites as national heritage,” Aslan stated.
As part of his inquiry, Aslan has posed critical questions to Minister Ersoy, including whether the government was aware of the church’s sale, the legitimacy of the claim that the church deed is privately owned, the number of churches and monasteries owned by the ministry, and whether there are any plans to prevent the sale of religious sites or return them to their communities.
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NPR News: 04-01-2024 6PM EDT
JERUSALEM — Thousands of Israelis took to the streets in Jerusalem on Monday, continuing a three-day protest against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demanding new elections.
The protests have gathered in intensity as the war in Gaza nears the end of its sixth month and anger at the government’s handling of the 134 Israeli hostages still held by the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza has grown.
“We’re here to protest. To ask for having elections as soon as possible. We feel like we got it to the edge. We really need to get rid of Bibi,” said Timna Benn, a protester in Jerusalem, using Netanyahu’s nickname.
Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition faced some of the biggest protests in Israel’s history last year, when hundreds of thousands joined weekly demonstrations against plans to overhaul the powers of the Supreme Court, which protesters saw as an attack on Israel’s democratic foundations.
Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out early elections, which opinion polls suggest he would lose, saying that to go to the polls in the middle of a war would only reward Hamas.
He has pledged to bring the hostages home and destroy Hamas, the Islamist movement that ruled Gaza, where more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s months-long assault, according to Hamas-run health authorities.
But after months when the crisis in Gaza put the normal rules of politics on hold, Netanyahu has faced increasingly vocal opposition.
Surveys indicate that most Israelis blame Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, for the security failures that led to the devastating attack by Hamas fighters on communities in southern Israel on October 7, in which around 1,200 were killed, according to Israeli tallies, and scores of hostages taken.
“They are not concerned about what happens in the country and with the people. They are concerned about maintaining their position in government. They work for themselves, not for the people. Simple as that,” said protester Refael Shakked-Gavish.
Adding an additional complication, Netanyahu also has faced protests by ultra Orthodox Jewish demonstrators, angry at the removal of exemptions that have kept young students from religious seminaries from compulsory military service.