Headlines:
- Rebels Make Gains in Syria
- Another Riot Another Killing in the US
- Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan Elections
- Russian President Putin calls 1915 Armenian Killings ‘Genocide’
- Netanyahu’s Independence Day Message Praises Troops’ ‘Fighting Spirit’ in Gaza
- Tajikistan Bans Hajj Pilgrimage for Citizens Younger Than 35
Rebels Make Gains in Syria
Since the rebel victory in Idlib in late March, the rebels have made considerable advances in their ongoing offensive in the wider Idlib province and northwestern Hama provinces. The biggest gain by the rebels occurred when they managed to seize the critical Idlib town of Jisr al-Shughour. The rebels then seized large portions of the northern al-Ghab Plain, cutting off the two roads from the south that connect to the M4 highway, thereby largely isolating the remaining al-Assad forces in the Frikah-Ariha-Mastoumah pocket in Idlib. The Bashar al-Assad was forced to send reinforcements from Damascus to reopen the route. The rebels were unable for some time to carry out large scale offensives, but this has changed with the operation that took back Idlib. Large-scale coordinated rebel offensives are becoming the norm in the uprising now and the regime is struggling to contain it. This shift, though still in its early stages resulted in stratfor concluding the following: “….but the rebels have shown sufficient capabilities and successes that it is time to re-examine the question of what happens if they actually take the country.”
Another Riot Another Killing in the US
Riots broke out across Baltimore, in the state of Maryland on Monday 27 after the funeral of a 25-year-old black man who was fatally injured while in police custody. Freddie Gray died April 17, a week after his spine was partially severed while in police custody after his arrest. Something happened to the victim during transport as an Autopsy showed that a “significant spinal injury” caused Gray’s death, Gray’s spine was severed 80% at his neck, according to a statement from his family attorney. The police initially stopped Gray because he “fled unprovoked upon noticing police presence,” according to court documents. Officers say they then saw a knife clipped to the inside of Gray’s pants pocket. “We know that having a knife is not necessarily a crime,” Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore said, according to The New York Times. But matters escalated after the funeral service and as a result Maryland governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency, activating the state’s 5,000 national guard, troops from the US national guard began rolling into Baltimore in armoured vehicles on Monday night after violent clashes, looting and fires led city authorities to declare a week-long curfew banning people from the streets at night. Gray’s case is the latest flashpoint for demonstrators who accuse American police of killing young black men without justification. The US has long struggled with a two-tier society with many languishing in the depths of poverty, with little justice in the face a police force that uses brutality to tackle disturbances and protests. The economic crisis form 2008 is now revealing the fracture eat the heart if US society, which the regime was able to hide due to economic prosperity. One US commentator highlighted there is a problem in the soul of the US, which if not fixed could lead to the falloff the US.
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan Elections
The two most important countries in Central Asia have completed their presidential elections Uzbekistan’s elections took place after the Nowruz festivities, on March 29. Just across the border, Kazakhstan went to the polls on April 26. Both elections featured Central Asia’s strongmen, Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan and Nursultan Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan. Both have been leading their respective countries since independence and win elections in staged elections rather than a free vote. Karimov confirmed expectations with 90.39%, while Nazarbayev did even better with 97.7% of the votes. Karimov is in a bad state, suffering from a heart attack in 2014, reports a double undertakes his assignments, this has led to a number of factions jockeying for position in a post Karimov regime. But what is for certain is that both leaders will stand against Islam and Muslims, which has been a consistent feature of their rule.
Russian president Putin calls 1915 Armenian killings ‘genocide’
According to the report, in a statement released on the Kremlin’s website on the occasion of event in Moscow called “A World without Genocide,” the Russian leader called the 1915 events a “mournful date, related to one of the most horrendous and dramatic events in human history, the genocide of the Armenian people.”
Putin said Russia sees the mass killings of Armenians as its own pain and sorrow and said Russians bow their heads before the memory of all victims of the tragedy after 100 years.
He underlined that mass elimination of people because of their ethnic group has no justification and vowed that his country will not change its objective and consistent stance towards the 1915 events.
“The international community has a duty to do everything possible to ensure that such atrocities never happen anywhere again. Future generations of Armenians and other peoples in that region must live in a world of harmony and never have to know the horrors that come from the incitement of religious enmity, aggressive nationalism and xenophobia,” Putin stated.
President Putin is scheduled to travel to the Armenian capital of Yerevan to attend ceremonies marking the centennial of what Armenians claim is a genocide of Ottoman Armenians in eastern Anatolia during World War I. However, Putin’s spokesperson Dimitri Peskov said Putin’s visit to the Armenian capital of Yerevan to attend the April 24 ceremonies marking the centennial of the killings and forced deportations will not damage ties between Turkey and Russia.
The Armenian government and diaspora have been working for a greater recognition of the 1915 events as “genocide” due to the centennial of the events this year. The pope described the mass killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule at the end of World War I as “the first genocide of the 20th century,” with his statement prompting Turkey to summon the Vatican’s envoy and recall its own. The European Parliament also called on Turkey to recognize the killings of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire as “genocide.” And in another recent blow, political parties in the Austrian parliament signed a declaration recognizing the massacre of the Armenians as “genocide.”
Germany’s parliament is set to adopt a motion using the word genocide on Friday. However, US President Barack Obama is not expected to use the word “genocide” in his traditional April 24 statement to commemorate the centenary of the mass killing of Armenians in 1915.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians died during the World War I years, but says the death toll offered by the Armenians, up to 1.5 million people, is inflated, and denies that the deaths resulted from an act of genocide. Ankara says Turks were also killed when Armenians took up arms in pursuit of an independent state in collaboration with Russian forces that were invading Eastern Anatolia at the time. Armenia, on the other hand, accuses the Ottoman authorities of the time of systematically massacring large numbers of Armenians, then deporting many more, including women, children, the elderly and the infirm, in terrible conditions on so-called death marches. [Source: Today’s Zaman]
While Turkish politicians continue praising Russia, Soviet successors never compromise.
Netanyahu’s Independence Day Message Praises Troops’ ‘Fighting Spirit’ in Gaza
In his Independence Day address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the fighting spirit of troops in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s praises came in the Hebrew-language version of a video released by his office at the start of Israel’s 67th Independence Day, which this year fell on Thursday. The English-language version contains no such reference but celebrates the right of Jews living outside Israel to immigrate there, or make aliyah.
“Last summer, during Operation Protective Edge, we saw your fighting spirit, your camaraderie, your bravery,” Netanyahu said in the introduction part of the Hebrew-language video, which Netanyahu began with a message addressed to members of the security forces. “You are the first element of Israel’s security and its independence.”
Israel has faced international criticism for its military operation last summer in Gaza against Hamas, which left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead, and has disputed claims by the Palestinians and others that it committed widespread war crimes.
“When we look at the countries around us, we see how exceptional Israel is — a vibrant democracy with equal rights to all its citizens,” Netanyahu said. “Israel is at the forefront of the world’s technology.”
Unlike the Hebrew address, Netanyahu’s English-language video also celebrates how Israel gives Jews “the right to make aliyah and be part of the modern State of Israel.”
It further differs from the Hebrew-language version in that it says specifically that Arab-Israelis are “equal under the law.”
Last month, Netanyahu urged voters to elect his party, Likud, because Arabs, he said, were showing up in great numbers to vote with help from left-wing groups. The statement spurred many Israeli politicians and opinion-shapers — as well as U.S. officials — to accuse Netanyahu of eroding democratic values, and he later apologized for the offense it caused. [Source: Jewish Journal]
لَا يَأْلُونَكُمْ خَبَالًا وَدُّوا مَا عَنِتُّمْ قَدْ بَدَتِ الْبَغْضَاءُ مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَمَا تُخْفِي صُدُورُهُمْ أَكْبَرُ
“They wish you would have hardship. Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater.”
(3:118)
Tajikistan Bans Hajj Pilgrimage for Citizens Younger than 35
Tajikistan has banned the hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, for citizens younger than 35 years old.
Many in the Central Asian country believe the ban is an attempt to prevent young Tajiks from developing radical ideas and joining extremist groups such as Islamic State (IS).
It comes a month after President Emomali Rahmon called for a long-term development “concept” based on secularism.
The government’s Committee for Religious and Cultural Issues announced the hajj restriction on April 13.
The committee said it is intended to give older Muslims a greater opportunity to undertake the hajj, as Saudi Arabia limits the number of pilgrims from each country annually.
Rahmon’s government has repeatedly called for the strengthening of secular principles in the mostly Muslim country of 8.5 million.
Tajikistan has banned head scarves for schoolgirls, barred minors from mosques, and forced thousands of students to return home from Islamic schools abroad in recent months amid reports that many Tajiks have joined militant groups fighting in Iraq and Syria.
Also in recent months, dozens of Tajiks have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for links with banned Islamic groups, such as Hizb ut Tahrir, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and Jamaat Ansarullah.
The trials were held amid increased pressure on the only officially registered Islamic party in Central Asia — the Islamic Renaissance Party, which was banished from parliament in a March 1 election marred by fraud allegations.
Last month, imams at several mosques across Tajikistan have urged Muslims to support the closure of the party, calling for a referendum to dissolve it.
In December, Rahmon, who has been running the country with an iron fist since 1992, publicly accepted that young Tajiks had been joining Islamic militants in the Middle East and described the IS group as a “modern plague” that posed a “threat to global security.”
Rahmon added then that hundreds of Tajiks fighting alongside IS militants “bring instability to society at home as well” as they recruit more young Tajiks for extremist groups in Syria and Iraq.
In February, Tajikistan’s newly appointed prosecutor-general, Yusuf Rahmonov, said that a special center tasked with investigating cases of recruitment to banned Islamic groups would begin operating soon.
In March, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Moscow planned to bolster Russia’s military bases in Tajikistan and neighboring Kyrgyzstan due to increased activity of IS “units” in Central Asia.
A recent report from the International Crisis Group estimated that 2,000 to 4,000 people from Central Asia have gone to Syria during the last three years to join Islamist militants. [Source: Radio Free Europe]
Agent rulers will always be “more royalist than the king”. They can do anything to assure their reign and satisfy their masters.