On April 24 Armenians and others around the world once again remembered the Armenian genocide. It has been 94 years since the beginning of that genocide which was to last from 1915 to 1920 and involved the destruction of almost every Armenian community living in what became Turkey. As many as 1.2 million people were killed. Grigoris Balakian was an unlikely witness of this mass slaughter. It was a fateful decision. On April 24, 1915, after Turkey had entered World War I on the side of Germany, at nightfall the Turkish police fanned out across Istanbul with orders to round up 250 Armenians activists, intellectuals, communal and church leaders. Balakian was roused from his bed and taken along with the others to the prison of Sirkedji. The genocide had begun. There were mass deportations, starvation and massacre, with some 400,000 Armenians dying in forced marches and another 400,000 dying in the desert wastes.
On April 25, 2009, the leader of the Caucasus jihadist movement (Caucasus Emirate), Dokku Umarov, responded to recent claims by Moscow that the insurgency was defeated and that the war was over. In a video message posted on the Internet, Dokku claimed otherwise and stated that the resistance was “better than it was in 2006, in 2007, in 2008. Allah has helped us, in the meanwhile, to restore all Jamaats (groups) in Caucasus...I consider that the main victory is that we have restored Riyad-us-Saliheen, Jamaat of our dear brother Shamil [Basayev],” he continued. "If we are forbidden to kill those citizens [Russians], who are so called peaceful citizens, who provide for the army, for the FSB by their taxes, by their silence, who support that army by their approving silence, if those people are considered civilians, then I don't know, by what criteria it is judged,” Dokku continued. “Therefore, Insha’Allah, it is our great success that we have restored this Jamaat [Riyad-us-Saliheen], and that this Jamaat will carry out operations in the territory of Russia, and it will be our retaliatory attacks for those deeds [the elimination of Muslims and Muslim-helpers] which are committed in Caucasus." Until recently, it was thought that the Caucasus jihadist movement had outgrown these terror tactics. However, with Dokku's latest decrees mirroring the beliefs of the late Shamil Basayev; and a recent wave of attacks throughout Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingusetia; the seriousness of the situation could certainly pose a tough test for Moscow and Kadyrov in convincing the public that the counterterrorism campaign is indeed over.
Police say they are investigating a complaint that an officer defaced an Iraqi migrant's Koran during an identity check. The alleged incident has triggered angry demonstrations by hundreds of Muslim immigrants, and human rights groups plan to organize migrants in a protest march on Friday. Police have arrested an Afghan man on suspicion of trying to firebomb an Athens police station in a protest attack Thursday that left him severely burned. Police say they will investigate the allegation that an officer tore up the migrant's copy of Islam's holy book while checking his identity papers in Athens on Wednesday.
Greek lobbyists have written to President Barack Obama claiming the United States has no business supporting Macedonia's “subversion of history” and should now withdraw its support for the formal name of the fledgling Balkan state. The letter, signed by around 200 lecturers of Graeco-Roman Antiquity from 11 countries, is a result of extensive lobbying by the Greek diaspora. The document was sent earlier this week and has now been posted on the website Macedonia Evidence. Its authors urge President Obama to reverse the policy of predecessor George W Bush, whose administration unilaterally recognized Macedonia’s formal name in 2004. Macedonia's name has so far been recognized by over two thirds of the UN member countries, including US, Russia and China. However the provisional reference, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, FYROM, is still in official use in the UN at Greek insistence.
The latest round of United Nations-mediated talks aimed at reunifying Cyprus hit its first major hurdle yesterday as Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat failed to agree on the opening of a new crossing point on the divided island and authorities in Nicosia expressed fears that Talat was being controlled by the Turkish military. Greek-Cypriot residents in the northwestern region of Tillyria have been pushing for the crossing to be opened at Limnitis, as this would reduce the travel time to Nicosia by half. Agreeing that the opening of additional crossings was also a method of building trust between the two communities, Christofias and Talat had agreed late last year to open the Limnitis border point. In a report submitted on Wednesday to the United Nations Security Council, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was “disappointed” at the lack of progress in building trust. “Other confidence-building measures, such as the creation of crossings, including Limnitis, would greatly contribute to an improvement in the atmosphere on the island,” he said.
Latest developments during last weeks related the EU’s policy of diversifying Europes’s energy supplies give a clear indication that EU’s pipedream - Nabucco - is vanishing while the rival Russia’s South Stream gets a boost both on the ground and updated aims. European Commission has tried enhance Nabucco already some nine year with modest or even backward success. Now is maybe the right time to reconsider EU’s energy plans in new context. On May 15 South Stream project got a boost two step closer to reality. Italy’s ENI, Gazprom signed memoranda of understanding with Greek natural gas transmission company DESFA, Serbia’s Srbijagas and Bulgarian Energy Holding. The pipeline would cross the Black Sea at 2.000m depth and from there to the city of Barna, in Bulgaria and from there its north part will reach Austria after crossing Serbia while its south part will extend to Greece and Italy. Earlier Nabucco got its priority status in EU as the aim was to diversify supplies away from Russia. Now Gazprom is to make a presentation to the European Parliamentto promote South Stream later in 2009. The EU Energy Commission says Gazprom would have to prove South Stream represents “added value” for Europe to become a priority, earlier the EU has already accepted Gazprom’s Nord Stream as a priority project.
Biden visited the 14th century Decani monastery on Thursday afternoon to highlight the importance protecting the Serbian minority in Kosovo. Father Sava Janjic, warmly welcomed the vice president, who had first visited there in 2001. “This is his second visit to this monastery which is one of the most important Serbian Orthodox sites in Kosovo,” Fr. Sava said. “We sincerely believe his visit will help the preservation of Serbian Orthodox heritage in Kosovo and generally help the position of the Serbian people in Kosovo.” Security was tight. In addition to Italian soldiers who normally guard what is the biggest Serbian Orthodox monastic brotherhood worldwide, many secret service agents accompanied Biden inside the compound. Some heavily armed agents remained on guard as he went inside for talks, although a few took a tour of the church to admire its magnificent frescos. At the end of his three-day visit to Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo, Biden said real integration among ethnic groups in the Balkans could prove even more difficult than it had been to end the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia. “What we are talking about now is real integration, not just the elimination of carnage and brutality, but there is where it really gets hard and it’s going to take time,” he said. “This is a process … it’s going to take a while.”