I. RIANOVOSTI - Top MP warns NATO to heed new Russian military doctrine
NATO should view Russia's new military doctrine as a signal the alliance needs to change its attitude if it wants better relations with Moscow, a senior Russian parliamentarian said Thursday. Since the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, NATO has expanded from 12 members to 28, absorbing the majority of Moscow's Cold War allies in Eastern Europe and some former Soviet republics. "Our partners during talks had the chance to see [the signal] when [Russia's] top leaders included NATO's expansion into the list of threats to Russia. This is not just expert opinion," Konstantin Kosachyov, who heads the Russian lower house's international committee, said after a Moscow meeting of experts from both sides that involved the NATO group of "wise men. This is how our people see this process. This is a serious concern hindering fully-fledged cooperation between Russia and NATO," he told journalists. Last week, President Dmitry Medvedev approved the new military doctrine which includes the use of nuclear weapons by Russia and lists NATO's eastward expansion and U.S. anti-missile shield plans as national threats. "If NATO is really interested in establishing a partnership with Russia, it should take these concerns into account," Kosachyov said. He also said that discussions between Russian and NATO representatives failed to clear all the differences, but added he hoped talks would continue in Washington later in February. Anders Fogh Rasmussen took over at the Western military bloc last year pledging to improve ties with Moscow, which were frozen after Russia's five-day war with Georgia in 2008. Russia and NATO have since resumed formal contacts. Improvements in Russia-NATO relations have been helped by a course towards "resetting" thorny relations between Moscow and Washington.
The UN secretary general's mediator on the FYROM name issue, Matthew Nimetz, will visit Greece in the last week of February, foreign ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras announced in Athens on Thursday. Delavekouras underlined Greece's desire for proceeding to a solution of the name issue, a condition of which is FYROM's refraining from aggressive moves, and the neighboring country's "creative participation" in the dialogue with Greece. A solution is feasible, he said, but it is a matter of Skopje's political volition, and added that a solution will "unblock" FYROM's Euro-Atlantic prospect.
III. KATHIMERINI - Kurdish editor jailed
A Turkish court yesterday sentenced the editor-in-chief of a Kurdish-language newspaper to 21 years and three months in jail on charges of spreading separatist propaganda. The court ruled that Ozan Kilinc had “disseminated the propaganda of a terrorist organization” by publishing reports and pictures on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its jailed leader in 12 separate issues of the Azadiya Welat (Independence of Homeland) daily in June last year. Kilinc, who also owns the newspaper, was found guilty of “committing a crime on behalf of the terrorist organization.” The judges issued an arrest warrant for the editor, who was not present in the courtroom. Founded in 1994 as a weekly which turned into a daily in 2006, Azadiya Welat has often been the target of judicial action on grounds that it is a mouthpiece for the PKK, which has led a bloody 25-year rebellion against Ankara. The paper’s previous editor-in-chief, Vedat Kursun, has been in jail for the past 13 months while being tried for spreading rebel propaganda, praising criminals and aiding and abetting rebels, according to Bianet, a civic body defending freedom of expression.
Turkey said Wednesday it would not withdraw troops from the divided island of Cyprus, rejecting a call from the European Parliament (EP), the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported. European lawmakers on Wednesday endorsed a resolution that urged Turkey to start prompt withdrawal of troops from Cyprus, a Mediterranean island divided into the Turkish north and Greek south since 1974. Turkey's Chief Negotiator for European Union (EU) talks Egemen Bagis said Wednesday it was impossible for Turkey to accept the sections regarding Cyprus in the resolution. "Turkey does not have a plan or view to withdraw troops from the island," Bagis was quoted as saying before meeting Atlantic Council President Frederick Kempe in Ankara. Bagis said the EP resolution on Turkey, an EU aspirant, lost its impartiality and "reflected a compromise among political groups in the parliament rather than the facts in Turkey." "EU process is important for Turkey, however, it is not as important as to make us sacrifice Cyprus. Cyprus is a national cause for all of us," he said.The EU agreed to launch accession talks with Turkey in October 2005 but progress was slow as the 27-nation bloc has urged Ankara to normalize relations with Cyprus and speed up reforms to improve human rights and democracy. Ankara retains some 35,000 troops in the north and refuses to recognize the Republic of Cyprus, which has international recognition.
V. B92 - Cyprus supports Serbia
Cyprus is supporting Serbia’s position regarding Kosovo, stated Defense Minister Dragan Šutanovac on Wednesday. He was meeting with Cypriot President Demetris Christofias in Nicosia. The minister said that he had received assurances that Cyprus was supporting Serbia's position on Kosovo not only because of friendly relations, but also because they were convinced that this was the way to defending principles of the modern world, international law and UN system. Pointing out that Cyprus had a similar problem, Šutanovac noted that Serbia had unselfish and unconditional support of the country and its president in the European integrations. As during the previous meeting with Cypriot Defense Minister Costas Papacostas, he spoke to Christofias about cooperation in the defense sector, which should be expanded. According to the Serbian defense minister, Serbia has offered education to Cypriot officers at its Military Academy and Military Medical Academy (VMA). Serbian and Cypriot special units have already had joint training which will be continued and visits of cadets and officers have also been agreed, it was announced. Šutanovac and Papacostas signed an agreement on cooperation between the two countries in the area of defense, and the Serbian minister told reporters that Serbia was grateful for the principled position that Cyprus had on Kosovo. He repeated Serbia’s stance regarding Cyprus was that the only correct approach was diplomatic, through negotiations and searching for a solution within the Helsinki Charter, international legal order and UN resolutions. Šutanovac also placed a wreath at the monument at the military cemetery in Nicosia, where Cypriot soldiers killed in the Turkish invasion in 1974 were buried. After the invasion, Cyprus lost control of over 36.2 percent of its territory.
VI. DEUTSCHEWELL - Bosnian Serb region passes controversial referendum law
The parliament of the semi-autonomous Bosnian Serb region has paved the way for a referendum on the 1995 Dayton peace accords, prompting criticism from opposition parties and foreign governments. In a move that could widen the rift in Bosnia's already divided society, the Bosnian Serb region has passed a law making it easier to hold public referendums on controversial issues. This primarily includes the legitimacy of the Dayton peace accords, which ended the 1992-1995 war, and the work of international peace envoy Valentin Inzko. Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said his government had no hidden agenda with the vote. "We want to pass a law and then call a referendum about the support to the Dayton peace agreement and decisions disparaging it," he said. Post-war Bosnia comprises two largely autonomous regions: the Serb-run Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat-run Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, united under a weak federal government. Previous laws allowed Muslim and Croat minorities in the Bosnian Serb parliament to block referendums with stalling tactics until a deadline passed, but the reform rids the laws of the time limits. While referendums held only in the Serb-governed region would have no legal standing in Bosnia, they could cause political and social upheaval in the country.
VII. CHRISTIANITYTODAY - Lent: Why Bother? For Spiritual Exercise
"Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable …. I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified" (1 Cor. 9:25, 27, ESV). Lent is a time of year to remember that God has seen fit to make us not airy spirits but embodied human beings living in a beautiful, material world. The soul fills the body the way fire fills a lump of coal, and what the body learns, the soul absorbs as well. Spiritual disciplines such as fasting are analogous to weight-lifting equipment. One who uses them in a disciplined way will be stronger, not just when he's lifting weights, but also for every situation he meets. While some people think of Lent as a time to personally choose something to "give up," the practice of the Eastern Christians, from the earliest centuries, is to observe a common fast. This is not a complete fast, but rather abstaining from meat and dairy—basically a vegan diet. There's something to be said for following an ancient, universal Lenten custom like this instead of choosing your own adventure. Most of us are not capable of being our own spiritual directors. We don't have the perspective needed to choose the things that will really change us. A fast like this, observed for 2,000 years by Eastern Christians in lands from Eastern Europe to Africa, India, and Alaska, is time-tested. In Lent we are one not only with the church through time, but also with those in our local church. Orthodox Lent begins with the Rite of Forgiveness, in which all church members form a circle and, one at a time, stand face-to-face with each other and ask forgiveness. This experience is profoundly healing and also preventive; I'm more likely to restrain a harsh word in July if I recall that I will have to ask this person's forgiveness again in March. Lenten disciplines train us like athletes, strengthening our earthly bodies and souls, healing the body of believers in our local parish, and forging union with the body of Christ throughout time. "Forgetting what lies behind" and the sins of the past, we "press on" to combat those sins that lie ahead, made stronger by our Lenten disciplines, "for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus".