Russia massing troops on Iran's northern border to respond to Western attack
Russia is
massing troops along Iran's northern border to defend the Mullahcracy from a Western attack on its nuclear weapons (Hat Tip:
Politik Nevada via
The End Run Project).
Russian Defense Ministry sources say that the Russian military doesn't believe that Israel has sufficient military assets to defeat Iranian defenses and further believes that U.S. military action will be necessary.
The implication of preparing to move Russian troops not only is to protect its own vital regional interests but possibly to assist Iran in the event of such an attack. Sources add that a Russian military buildup in the region could result in the Russian military potentially engaging Israeli forces, U.S. forces, or both.
Informed sources say that the Russians have warned of "unpredictable consequences" in the event Iran is attacked, with some Russians saying that the Russian military will take part in the possible war because it would threaten its vital interests in the region.
The influential Russian Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper has quoted a Russian military source as saying that the situation forming around Syria and Iran "causes Russia to expedite the course of improvement of its military groups in the South Caucasus, the Caspian, Mediterranean and Black Sea regions."
This latest information comes from a series of reports and leaks from official Russian spokesmen and government news agencies who say that an Israeli attack is all but certain by the summer.
Because of the impact on Russian vital interests in the region, sources say that Russian preparations for such an attack began two years ago when Russian Military Base 102 in Gyumri, Armenia, was modernized. It is said to occupy a major geopolitical position in the region.
Families of Russian servicemen from the Russian base at Gyumri in Armenia close to the borders of Georgia and Turkey already have been evacuated, Russian sources say.
"Military Base 102 is a key point, Russia's outpost in the South Caucasus," a Russian military source told the newspaper. "It occupies a very important geopolitical position, but the Kremlin fears lest it should lose this situation."
Hmmm.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Armenia, Georgia, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran, Russia
Israelis, Armenians booed at European Youth Olympics in Turkey
At the European Youth Olympics in Trabzon, Turkey, athletes from Israel and Armenia were
greeted with hostility. 3,000 participants from 49 countries are participating (Hat Tip:
Joshua I).
At the wake of the deadly events in Norway, the crowd held a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack of June 22. However, what one Turkish journalist noted was the hatred in the air towards the Armenian and Israeli athletes.
“Yes, there was a moment of silence for those murdered in Norway and all other victims of terrorism,” wrote Murat Yetkin, a Hurriyet columnist, “but the young athletes from Armenia and Israel were booed by local spectators because of the political and cultural atmosphere.”
“Yet, due to the decades-long cultural pollution as a result of indoctrination going back to the years of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the traces of the atmosphere of hatred is still around,” he added.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Armenia, Turkish obsession with Israel
Now Erdogan wants an apology from... Armenia?
If the World is willing to tolerate the lies and innuendo of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding Israel, will they also tolerate it regarding Armenia? Erdogan, whose country committed genocide against the Armenians 90-100 years ago, murdering a million and a half of them in the process, is now demanding that Armenia
apologize to Turkey!
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said in Baku that Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan should apologize for calling on school children to occupy eastern Turkey.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Erdoğan said Sarksyan's remarks did not befit a statesman and called them a “historical mistake” that should be corrected.
When asked by a student at a literature contest ceremony if Armenians will be able to get back their “western territories” along with Mt. Ararat, Sarksyan said, "This is the task of your generation.”
Armenians attach great historical and cultural importance to Mt. Ararat on the eastern border of modern-day Turkey, around where Armenians are believed to have first adopted Christianity as an official religion in 301 A.D.
Sarksyan said his generation had fulfilled its task by “getting back” Karabakh, a part of what he called “our motherland.” Nagorno-Karabakh is an Azerbaijani territory which is currently under Armenian occupation.
Leaders of both countries have met dozens of times to find a settlement to the decades-long conflict but have failed to secure a peace agreement. Armenia currently occupies 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territories, including seven adjacent provinces populated by ethnic Azerbaijanis.
...
Erdoğan said Sarksyan's behavior is a provocation and an attempt to fill youth with hatred, which he said will lead Armenia's youth into “darkness.” “There cannot be such diplomacy. Sarksyan has made a very serious mistake … he must apologize,” Erdoğan added.
...
Aliyev also deplored Sarksyan's remarks and said Armenians should wake up “from a dream into real life.” He said Nagorno-Karabakh is an Azerbaijani territory and that Sarksyan's words that they will occupy, what he called, “historical Turkish lands” only show their occupation mentality, adding that it seems as if Armenia thinks they have already settled the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. “Azerbaijan will get back their territories, either through peace or military means,” Aliyev said.
In Yerevan, Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan rejected interpreting Sarksyan’s words as if he meant to encourage students to occupy eastern Turkey, stating that his words were taken out of context.
“I believe, Turks failed to read the full text, interpreting the president’s words out of context. Serzh Sarksyan’s statement is serious and reasonable. The only reason Turkey refuses see sense behind it is because the country doesn’t need it,” Kocharyan said, Armenian news portal panarmenian.net reported late on Wednesday.
JPost adds:
Erdogan’s demand for an Armenian apology comes just a few days after he threatened Israel with a “Plan B” – a further downgrading of ties – if it did not apologize for last year’s Mavi Marmara incident.
“What we see here is a pattern developing,” one Israeli diplomatic source said of Erdogan’s most recent demand for an apology. “Who is going to ask Erdogan to apologize for Turkey’s occupation of northern Cyprus?”
So will
Obama take Turkey's side against Armenia too?
Labels: Armenia, Armenian genocide, Azerbaijan, Barack Hussein Obama, Ilham Aliyev, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Serzh Sarksyan, Turkey
Poll: Turks don't like Israel (or anyone else)
I keep getting comments from people who identify themselves as Turks, and even as Turkish Jews, who claim that it's not true that Turkey hates Israel or Jews, that Erdogan (who has been elected twice) doesn't represent Turkey, etc. Sad to say,
those commenters are wrong (Hat Tip:
Joshua I).
A new survey conducted in Turkey by SETA demonstrated that 74% of Turks don’t like the Armenians, 71% dislike Israel and the Jews, 69% dislike the Greeks, 64% dislike Americans, 54% the Europeans and Russians and the list goes on. The only favored group seems to be the Azerbaijan’s Turks. These figures reflect on how the public opinion has been shaped during the nine year rule of the AKP government, and PM Erdogan’s hostile rhetoric.
Prominent Turkish journalist Ertugrul Ozkok of Hurriyet, wrote in his column that these findings, and the hostility and sometimes the violence towards ‘all others’ are both astonishing and alarming, and added that “it is time to gather the best sociologists and psychologists in the country and ask the question, ‘Why don’t we (Turks) like anybody?’”
Yavuz Bulent Bakiler of the pro-AKP daily Turkiye responded to Ozkok’s article by justifying the negative sentiments towards all foreign peoples. He asked, “How can we love the Jews? Their biblical ideal is even depicted on their flag. They want to build the ‘Great Israel’ that will cover all the area between Euphrates and Nile. The Jews are oppressing our brethren in Palestine… How can our nation love the Jews?”
Bakiler also asked, “Which sensible Turk could trust America’s friendship?” and asserted that had America wanted, with one word to (Kurdish) Talabani and Barzani, it could have ended their savagery. “How can we love Americans?” he asked. He also criticized Europeans for supporting the PKK terror, for stirring up the Alevi issue in Turkey and wrote, “They are the ones that are hostile towards Turks”.
Maybe it's time for the rest of us to come out in open support of the Kurds.
Labels: Armenia, Europe, Israel, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey, United States
Israel warming relations with another enemy of Turkey
Since Israel's relations with Turkey went to hell this past summer, with the Turks choosing Iran and Syria over their alliance with Israel and sending the terrorist-laden Mavi Marmara to attempt to run the Gaza blockade, Israel has been seeking new allies. The natural place to look is those countries with whom Israel did not have warm relations until now because of its alliance with Turkey. And so, over the past few months, Israel has greatly improved its relations with Greece. Now, Israel is courting another enemy of Turkey, which could have severe implications for the Turks in the 'international community.' Israel is
warming relations with Armenia.
The report suggests that if Armenian-Israeli relations deepen, the powerful Jewish lobby in the United States could theoretically back the Armenian resolutions on genocide and undermine Turkey.
During and after World War I, the Ottoman Empire, whose seat of power became independent Turkey, uprooted Armenians from their homes, and conducted forced marches to the desert of what is today Syria. This became known as the Armenian Genocide. Some 1 to 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered between 1915 and 1923.
The Republic of Turkey, however, refuses to acknowledge that the Ottomans indeed performed genocide on the Armenians and attempts to block all recognition of the Armenian debacle.
In an article in The Washington Times under the headline “American Jewish community ends support of Turkish interests on [Capitol] Hill”, Eli Lake reminded readers that in 2008, leading Jewish organizations decided that they would no longer block the adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution in Congress. Lake believed that this was a response to the worsening Israeli-Turkish relations at the time, a circumstance that could very well repeat itself now.
With a Republican-controlled Congress and Israeli support, the chances of Congress recognizing the Armenian genocide are far more than they were until now. It's about time that the right thing happened.
Labels: Armenia, Armenian genocide, Israel, Turkey
Russia is massing troops along Iran's northern border to defend the Mullahcracy from a Western attack on its nuclear weapons (Hat Tip: Politik Nevada via The End Run Project). 
