Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

[Sarkis86]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

Some very interesting, and unbiased, posts by Federate and Haykakan on this important topic. Geo-strategically, Syria is important for Armenia as the hopeful graveyard of western-zionist-turkish backed terrorism, as well as the direct safety of tens of thousands of Diasporan civilians those terrorists are willing to once again sacrifice (1915 all over again, same victims, same perpetrators). Below are two links of interest, full of very relevant analysis by the blogger, dozens of relevant and hard to find articles, and a very active somments section with users posting daily news and analysis.

Syrian Conflict: A Brief Military Analysis:
http://theriseofrussia.blogspot.com/...-analysis.html

Middle Eastern geopolitics and the proxy war in Syria:
http://theriseofrussia.blogspot.com/...syria-may.html

Haykakan, consider copying many of your more insightful comments from here and pasting them to the comments of the Syrian Conflict: A Brief Military Analysis: entry as well, I think they'd be a very useful contribution.

[Haykakan]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

RUSSIAN POLITICAL EXPERT: VLADIMIR PUTIN PREVENTED DAMASCUS'S SEIZURE PLANNED FOR DEC 2012

ARMINFO
Friday, June 28, 15:19

President of Russia Vladimir Putin held Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Erdogan from a military operation against Syria, Russian political
expert, Professor Igor Panarin told ArmInfo.

He said that the latest anti-governmental manifestations in Istanbul
and other big Turkish cities were organized by external forces that
were displeased with Erdogan's refusal to war against Bashar Assad.

"Actually, Damacus's seizure was planned for December 2012 with
Erdogan to have had the key role in it. However, negotiations were
held between Putin and Erdogan at the given period of time and I think
Turkey certainly changed its stance after those negotiations. I'd like
to see the reasonability reigning in the Turkish elite in order the
latter refrains from participating in the anti-Syrian plots," the
politician said.

Panarin shares the view that one of the targets for the Turkish
mercenaries warring on the side of the Syrian terrorists, the
so-called armed opposition, is the Armenian community, the successors
of the Armenians that survived the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey
in early 20th century.

"I think it is a delicate global game. The Islamic extremists are
killing first of all the Christian population, both the Catholics, who
number nearly 2 million people in Syria, and Armenians," he said.

[Haykakan]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

AL-NUSRA FRONT SLAUGHTERS CHRISTIAN PRIEST IN HOMS

Al-Nusra front had slaughtered a Christian priest and another two
people in Homs.Priest before being killed

News websites and social media had circulated a videotape showing
3 handcuffed people who were believed that Father Francois Murad to
be among them. A number of masked gunmen and other people gathered
around them before they slaughtered and beheaded them.

Internet websites said that the face of one of the victims apply to
that of the Father Murad Franciscan whom Vatican media sources revealed
his death. The Father is from Ghassaniya monastery region near Homs,
which had been fully vandalized and looted by a group of terrorists.

Among the websites that circulated the tape was the Syrian Center
for Documentation. (This video contains scenes that some viewers may
find disturbing).

Source: Websites

[Haykakan]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

PUTIN: RUSSIA ARMING LEGITIMATE GOV'T IN SYRIA, WEST ARMING ORGAN-EATERS

Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the Western countries
for arming foreign-backed militants fighting the Syrian government,
warning that such move contradicts basic human values since the armed
groups are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

During a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David
Cameron on Sunday, Putin said: "You will not deny that one does not
really need to support the people who not only kill their enemies,
but open up their bodies, eat their intestines in front of the public
and cameras. Are these the people you want to support? Is it them
who you want to supply with weapons? Then this probably has little
relation to humanitarian values that have been preached in Europe
for hundreds of years."

Putin was referring to video footage surfaced on the Internet last
month of a militant eating what appeared to be the heart of a dead
Syrian soldier.

In an interview with Time magazine on May 14, the cannibal militant,
known by his nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, confirmed that the video is
real and that he did indeed take a bite of the soldier's lung. Human
Rights Watch said it was a war crime.

Putin said that Russia by contrast was arming the legitimate government
of Syria "We are not breaching any rules and norms and we call on
all our partners to act in the same fashion," he said.

Speaking after a difficult meeting with Putin in Northern Ireland,
Cameron claimed both men were in agreement on the need to end the
human catastrophe of the Syrian crisis. But there was little to
suggest the two men made progress on how to convene a fresh Syrian
peace conference in Geneva, let alone who should attend, or its agenda.

"There are very big differences between the analysis we have of what
happened in Syria and who is to blame but where there is common ground
is that we both see a humanitarian catastrophe," Cameron said.

"What I take from our conversation today is that we can overcome
these differences if we recognize that we share some fundamental aims:
to end the conflict, to stop Syria breaking apart, to let the Syrian
people decide who governs them and to take the fight to the extremists
and defeat them," he said.

Source: Agencies

17-06-2013 - 14:10 Last updated 17-06-2013 - 14:10 | 747 View

http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=97879&cid=22&fromval=1&frid=22&seccatid=45&s1=1

[Haykakan]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

ARMY INFLICTS HEAVY LOSSES UPON TERRORISTS, CONTROLS GAS WELLS IN HOMS COUNTRYSIDE

http://sana.sy/eng/337/2013/06/17/487892.htm

Jun 17, 2013

Provinces, (SANA)- A unit of the armed forces confronted armed
terrorist groups' attack on Jouret al-Shayyah neighborhood in Homs,
killing and injuring a number of terrorists, according to a military
source.

The source told SANA that another unit of the armed forces clashed
with armed terrorist groups which tried to infiltrate across tunnels
from al-Wa'ar neighborhood towards al-Ghota groves to Homs city,
killing a number of their members.

Meanwhile, units of the armed forces targeted terrorists' gatherings
in Kisin in al-Hola countryside and the neighborhoods of al-Kaldiyeh
and al-Karabis, inflicting heavy losses upon terrorists.

In Palmyra countryside, units of the armed forces continued pursuing
the armed terrorist groups in Tal Abu Trad and the houses surrounding
Syriatel.

The army controlled a number of gas wells, killing a number of
terrorists, injuring others and destroying their weapons.

Army clashes with terrorists in Damascus Countryside

A unit of the armed forces clashed and pursued an armed terrorist
group south of al-Sayyeda Zeinab towards al-Bahdaliyeh in Damascus
Countryside.

An official source told SANA that the clash resulted in the killing
and injuring of a number of terrorists, and that the army continued
pursuing the terrorists who fled towards al-Bahdaliyeh area.

In the town of Halboun in al-Tal area, Army units eliminated a
number of terrorists including a Saudi called Abdullah al-Mhaus and
Ali Snobar who was the leader of a terrorist group calling itself
"Khaled bin al-Walid battalion."

In the farms surrounding al-Ahmadiye in the eastern Ghouta area, Army
units eliminated Malek Jerudiye who was the leader of a terrorist group
and destroyed weapons and munitions including a 23mm anti-aircraft gun.

In Babila, the Army destroyed a terrorist hideout along with the
weapons and munitions in it and eliminated terrorists including
Mohammad Younes.

An Army unit clashed with terrorists near al-Othman Mosque in
Erbin, leaving all the terrorists dead or injured, while another
unit eliminated another leader of a terrorist group, Omar Fakherji,
near al-Mustafa Mosque in Jobar.

In Harasta, a sniper nicknamed Abu Saeed who had been hiding in
the farms west of the highway and targeting passing and cars was
eliminated, in addition to destroying a mortar cannon and a gathering
of terrorists, one of whom was Abdelghani al-Lala.

Army units eliminate Jabhat al-Nusra in Aleppo province

Army units eliminated a number of terrorists and destroyed their
weapons which included a mortar launcher north of Aleppo Central
Prison, the village of Mennegh, and on the Aleppo-Idleb road.

An Army unit eliminated terrorists who were barricaded inside al-Saad
pharmaceutical factory on al-Mansoura, in addition to destroying two
mortar launchers in al-Layramoun area which terrorists had been using
to shell al-Ashrafiya and al-Siryan areas.

The Armed Forces repelled a terrorist group which attempted to enter
al-Layramoun area from Bani Zeid area, eliminating most of its members
including Mohammad Mustafa Haj Mustafa, Mahmoud Taher Mardelli,
and Ahmad Fayyad al-Nasser.

An Army unit destroyed terrorist hideouts on the Kafrnaha road in Khan
al-Asal area and large numbers of heavy machineguns, while another
unit clashed with terrorists in the village of Bianon and eliminated
most of the terrorists including a Saudi called Akel Abdullah Akel.

Yet another Army unit destroyed a mortar launcher, heavy machineguns
and a terrorist gathering in the area between al-Midan and Bustan
al-Basha.

Terrorists who were committing robberies near Baidin and al-Sakhour
roundabouts were eliminated, along with terrorists who were holed
up in a building in al-Jazmati roundabout and their weapons, which
included a 23mm anti-aircraft gun and 9 machineguns, were destroyed.

Army dismantles Israeli-made mines in Daraa

In Daraa, a military source said that a unit of the armed forces
confronted an armed terrorist group's attack against one of the
military checkpoints near Jilin roundabout in Daraa, inflicting heavy
losses upon terrorists.

In a statement to SANA, the source added that a number of heavy
machineguns were destroyed and most of the terrorist group's members
were killed and injured, among them terrorist Sabah Jalileh, the
leader of an armed terrorist group called 'Jabhat al-Golan battalion'.

The source said that a number of mines, some Israeli-made, and
explosive devices, each weighs 30kg planted by terrorists in the
area surrounding Jilin roundabout to be detonated by remote, were
also dismantled.

Terrorist attack on military checkpoint in Hasaka repelled

An Army unit repelled terrorists who attempted to attack a military
checkpoint at al-Nashwa al-Gharbiya roundabout in Hasaka city.

The clash left most of the terrorists dead or injured, and their
equipment and weapons were destroyed, including heavy machineguns
and assault rifles.

Army unit destroys terrorists' weapons cache in Lattakia countryside

An Army unit carried out a special operation in the village of al-Hayat
in Lattakia countryside, destroying a weapons and munitions cache
belonging to terrorists.

A number of terrorists were killed in the operation, some of them
foreigners.

English Bulletin

[Haykakan]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

I have not been silent and neither have some others but generally yeh you are right the Armenian community has not been as vocal as it should be. I thought the Armenians in Syria should have taken up arms and fought along side the government troops but then again i am not the one living there. The Armenian communities in the USA are pretty pathetic-their main objective seems to be to make money off of events various organizations host. There is a lack of concern for anyone outside "their circle".

In what way is it inaccurate to say that there has been TOTAL silence from Armenians WORLDWIDE about what has been happening to Syria? And in what way is it inaccurate to say that there has been TOTAL silence from Armenians about what will happen to Syrian Armenians if the Islamists that Obama and co support come to power? Being neutral and passive is hardly credible behaviour if the end result of it is your genocide.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

Blanket statements like that are never accurate kittycat.

In what way is it inaccurate to say that there has been TOTAL silence from Armenians WORLDWIDE about what has been happening to Syria? And in what way is it inaccurate to say that there has been TOTAL silence from Armenians about what will happen to Syrian Armenians if the Islamists that Obama and co support come to power? Being neutral and passive is hardly credible behaviour if the end result of it is your genocide.

[Haykakan]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

Blanket statements like that are never accurate kittycat.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

imperialist pieces of s***
its okay, let america keep digging its own grave
arm mujahedin in Syria, so they can send weapons to Afghanistan, so they can kill more Americans
all while America goes bankrupt

Loud on a forum nobody cares about - quiet as a mouse elsewhere, I bet. This is for all of you, not specifically you Mher. You sit on your lazy arses as the genocide of Syria's Armenian community approaches. It has always amused me that the "military balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan" thread is the most popular one here. Fetishising over weapons that none of you will ever use, in a thread about strategy when you have none.

[retro]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

U.S. puts jets in Jordan, fuels Russian fear of Syria no-fly zone

The United States said on Saturday it would keep F-16 fighters and Patriot missiles in Jordan at Amman's request, and Russia bristled at the possibility they could be used to enforce a no-fly zone inside Syria.

Washington, which has long called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, pledged military support to Syrian rebels this week, citing what it said was the Syrian military's use of chemical weapons - an allegation Damascus has denied.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has approved a Jordanian request for American F-16s and Patriot missiles to remain in the Western-backed kingdom after a joint military exercise there next week, a Pentagon spokesman said.

Western diplomats said on Friday Washington was considering a limited no-fly zone over parts of Syria, but the White House noted later that it would be far harder and costlier to set one up there than it was in Libya, saying the United States had no national interest in pursuing that option.

Russia, an ally of Damascus and fierce opponent of outside military intervention in Syria, said any attempt to impose a no-fly zone using F-16s and Patriots from Jordan would be illegal.

"You don't have to be a great expert to understand that this will violate international law," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The idea of a no-fly zone was endorsed by Egypt, the biggest Arab nation. President Mohamed Mursi, an Islamist more distant from Washington than his deposed military predecessor, made a keynote speech in Cairo throwing Egypt's substantial weight more firmly than before against President Bashar al-Assad.

Despite their differences, the United States and Russia announced in May they would try to convene peace talks involving the Syrian government and its opponents, but have set no date.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said chemical attacks by Syrian forces and Hezbollah's involvement on Assad's side showed a lack of commitment to negotiations and threatened to "put a political settlement out of reach".

Kerry had not previously expressed such pessimism about prospects for the conference, which has run into many obstacles.

These include disarray in the Syrian opposition and military gains by the Syrian army and its Lebanese Hezbollah allies against rebels who have few ways to counter Assad's air power.

The involvement of Hezbollah fighters on the side of Assad, a fellow ally of the main Shi'ite power Iran, has galvanized Arab governments, including Egypt, behind the rebels, who mostly follow the Sunni version of Islam that dominates the Arab world.

That has hardened sectarian confrontation across the region, which some Arabs hope might be softened by the election of the moderate Hassan Rohani as Iran's president - though few believe he can truly influence Tehran's supreme leader.

Mursi, addressing thousands of cheering supporters at a stadium gathering organized by Egyptian Sunni clerics, demanded Hezbollah pull out of Syria and, after his Muslim Brotherhood joined calls for jihad against Assad and his Shi'ite allies, the president said Cairo had now cut diplomatic ties with Damascus.

Egypt's powerful, U.S.-backed army seems unlikely to involve itself in Syria, but religious passions are running high and more Egyptian volunteers could travel to join the rebels.

AIR STRIKES

The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian jets and artillery had again attacked Jobar, a battered district where rebels operate on the edge of central Damascus.

It said heavy artillery was also shelling opposition fighters in the provinces of Homs, Aleppo and Deir al-Zor.

Western powers have been reluctant in the past to arm Syrian insurgents, let alone give them sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles that might fall into the hands of Sunni Islamist insurgents in rebel ranks who have pledged loyalty to al Qaeda.

Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander Salim Idriss told Reuters late on Friday that rebels urgently needed anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, as well as a protective no-fly zone.

"But our friends in the United States haven't told us yet that they are going to support us with weapons and ammunition," he said after meeting U.S. and European officials in Turkey.

A source in the Middle East familiar with U.S. dealings with the rebels has said planned arms supplies would include automatic weapons, light mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

The United Nations says at least 93,000 people, including civilians and combatants, have died in the Syrian civil war, with the monthly death toll averaging 5,000 in the past year.

Abu Nidal, from the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham rebel group, said U.S. help was welcome, but questioned how effective it would be.

"I doubt the influx of weapons will significantly tip the balance into our favor," he said via Skype. "They might help push back regime offensives of the last few days."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/15/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE95C16L20130615