Regional geopolitics

[Azad]

Something is going on with all of the EU countries exposing azerbaijan all at once today.

It is getting nasty for the azeris! It is not at a country's level the corruptions investigations but the European Parliament. Watch next their propaganda guy (with 1920 mustaches) will be fired or imprisoned.

"European parliament calls for investigation into 'Azerbaijani Laundromat'

The European parliament has called for an investigation into revelations by the Guardian and media partners that Azerbaijan ran a secret $2.9bn (£2.2bn) slush fund to pay influential Europeans to paint a positive image of the authoritarian regime."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/13/european-parliament-calls-for-investigation-into-azerbaijani-laundromat

[Vrej1915]

ISIS video: Syrian Army takes heavy casualties in southern Raqqa (18+ graphic)

By Chris Tomson
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15/09/2017

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (1:00 A.M.) – ISIS has released nail-biting propaganda footage of close-quarter firefights with the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the southeastern desert of Raqqa province.

The footage showed an ISIS counter-offensive, believed to have occurred in late August, in which a jihadist suicide bomber spearheaded an attack on an SAA encampment not far from the Euphrates River.

In the wake of the battle, over a dozen SAA soldiers were shown dead while some even had their heads chopped off. Viewer discretion is therefore advised:

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07:27
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Despite ISIS hinting to the contrary, its forces are virtually expelled from Raqqa province due to recent offensives by the Russian-backed SAA and US-backed Kurdish forces.

Al-Masdar News strongly condemns terrorism in any shape or form but contrary to the mainstream media insists on allowing its readership unfiltered access to information.

[Vrej1915]

Kurdish militia leader warns Syrian Army of crossing the Euphrates

By Zen Adra
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16/09/2017

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (7:15 A.M.) – The US-backed forces in Syria said they will not allow the government troops to cross the Euphrates River as the latter continue to make rapid advances against the Islamic State in Deir Ezzor.

“Now we have 3 km between us and the eastern riverbank, once our forces reach the area, any shot fired into that area we will consider an attack on the military council,” said Abu Khawla, commander of the SDF-affiliated Deir Ezzor Military Council.

“We have notified the regime and Russia that we are coming to the Euphrates riverbank, and they can see our forces advancing,” he said. “We do not allow the regime or its militias to cross to the eastern riverbank.”

Earlier, the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that the Syrian forces have already crossed to the eastern bank of the Euphrates following the major advance against ISIS in eastern Syria.

I would like to inform you that after a major victory in Deir ez-Zor, the Syrian Government Army continues to clear ISIS terrorists in the eastern regions of the country. The suburbs of this provincial centre have been liberated. The advanced units successfully crossed the Euphrates River, reaching its eastern shore,” she confirmed.

[Azad]

Alexander Lapshin is attacking the azeris on all social medias. On FB he is almost telling the azeris to go fuk themselves.

"Newly Released Blogger Airs Grievances Against Azerbaijan

If Azerbaijan expected gratitude for releasing a blogger from prison early, it has miscalculated."

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/85176

[Azad]

"Lapshin urges Armenians to ‘stay strong,’ denies Baku’s suicide claims

“Armenians, you stay strong. These people [Azerbaijani government] want to see you all dead. Period. And if you lose Karabakh as a result of negotiations, or weakening of Armenia’s position – know that they will come to massacre you. Like the Turks did a 100 years ago. Brutality has already surpassed all permissible limits,” said Lapshin in a Facebook post on Friday."

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2017/09/16/Lapshin-Armenia-deny-Baku-suicide-claims/1835627

[Vrej1915]

Alexander Lapshin is attacking the azeris on all social medias. On FB he is almost telling the azeris to go fuk themselves.

"Newly Released Blogger Airs Grievances Against Azerbaijan

If Azerbaijan expected gratitude for releasing a blogger from prison early, it has miscalculated."

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/85176

Newly Released Blogger Airs Grievances Against Azerbaijan

September 16, 2017 , by Joshua Kucera


Blogger Alexander Lapshin's first post since being released from prison in Azerbaijan.

If Azerbaijan expected gratitude for releasing a blogger from prison early, it has miscalculated.

When Russian-Israeli travel blogger Alexander Lapshin was released after seven months in an Azerbaijani prison, his lawyer announced that Lapshin had written a letter of thanks to the country's president, Ilham Aliyev.

"Today I learned that you [Mr. President] have signed an order on my pardon. I am very thankful to you for this," said the letter, released on September 13 by Lapshin's lawyer in Azerbaijan.

Lapshin had been arrested in Belarus in December, and then extradited to Azerbaijan in February, for crossing into Nagorno Karabakh, the territory that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but which is controlled by Armenian forces.

His time in prison, it appeared, had changed his views on the Karabakh question. "Now I am fully convinced that Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijani territory. I hope that the Nagorno-Karabakh problem will be resolved within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity,” the letter continued. The blogger "also wished President Ilham Aliyev strong health and long life, expressing hope for the soonest liberation of the Azerbaijani territories," news agency APA reported.

To no one's surprise, however, as soon as Lapshin was out of the country his views quickly shifted. He took to his blog and Facebook to tell his side of the story, which contradicted the Azerbaijani narrative in almost every respect.

For one, he denied Azerbaijani government statements that he had attempted suicide while in prison. Instead, he wrote, he was badly beaten, to the point that he passed out and woke up in a hospital hooked up to a catheter and an oxygen mask. He further speculates that the attack was carried out to discredit Aliyev personally, which he says corresponds to what he has been told by Azerbaijan's opposition living abroad.

He also thanked a number of people who helped him while he was in prison, none of whom was Aliyev. Instead, he expressed gratitude to the staff of the Russian and Israeli consulates in Baku, who visited him regularly. And he thanked the Red Cross, which he lauded not just for helping him but for its work "in such troubled countries as Azerbaijan, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Rwanda."

He even more strongly took back his statements about Karabakh, declaring in a Facebook post that it was without doubt Armenian territory.

“I am ashamed of admitting that before I found myself in an Azeri prison I sincerely believed that the Karabakh conflict is a very disputed one and should be resolved on the basis of respect for Azerbaijan’s borders,” he wrote. “What an idiot I was! Already in 1988 Azerbaijan began terror against Armenians in Sumgait, Baku and Karabakh.”

“Armenians, hold firm!” he concluded. “These people want to see you dead, full stop. And if you lose Karabakh as a result of negotiations or a weakening of Armenia’s position, be aware that they will come to slaughter you. Just like the Turks did 100 years ago. Their brutality already has exceeded all acceptable limits."

The post set off the mother of all social media fights between Armenians and Azerbaijanis; 20 hours after it was posted it had already gotten more than 2,900 reactions (either likes or hates), over 1,000 shares and hundreds of comments.

It's unclear how Lapshin, if he went into prison in Azerbaijan believing that the Karabakh question was "disputed," how he left it seemingly having absorbed a strongly Armenian nationalist view of the history and conflict.

What's very clear, though, is that Azerbaijan has created for itself a PR disaster entirely of its own making, and that shows no signs of going away soon. In the space of about 24 hours he's already written three blog posts and has a knack for hitting all of Azerbaijan's sore spots, claiming the country is a hotbed of Islamist extremism and anti-Semitism, on top of everything else. He's started the hashtag #azeromarazm, translating roughly to "Azeri stupidity," which a number of Armenian twitter users have adopted gleefully.

Ironically, give the anti-Semitism claims, the timing of Lapshin's release appears to be connected to a visit by Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov to Israel. Baku appeared to think the pardon would be a humane gesture to show their Israeli partners, which now seems to have badly backfired.

[Vrej1915]

Turkish military buildup set to enter northern Syria

By Zen Adra
-
17/09/2017

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (6:15 P.M.) – Sources and eyewitnesses confirmed that a convoy of the Turkish Army has arrived at the Rihaniyah area on the Turkish-Syrian borders.

The convoy – which consists of 18 vehicles – is set to enter the Syrian territories as part of a de-escalation force to the jihadi-controlled province of Idlib.

During the 6^th round of peace talks held recently in the Astana, Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed on setting up a de-escalation zones in Syria for a period of 6 months.

A Turkish newspaper affiliated with the Turkish government said that the three guarantor countries mandated Turkey to be responsible for monitoring the agreement in the northern part of Iblib bordering Turkey.

[Azad]

Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed on setting up a de-escalation zones in Syria ... Turkish government said that the three guarantor countries mandated Turkey to be responsible for monitoring the agreement in the northern part of Iblib bordering Turkey.

In short, as predicted ... Russia sold the kurds to turkey to distance it from NATO and keep Syria and Iran, kurdish statehood free. It all falls on Iraq/US now.

[Hakob]

In short, as predicted ... Russia sold the kurds to turkey to distance it from NATO and keep Syria and Iran, kurdish statehood free. It all falls on Iraq/US now.

To be thrutful Kurds in Syria were never with Russia or Iran. Actually they were with US and allies.

[Azad]

To be thrutful Kurds in Syria were never with Russia or Iran. Actually they were with US and allies.

They bounced back and forth with whom promised them the world. Wasn't too long ago the US caused them to be slaughtered with similar promises.
The hell with them! I just want them to go full war inside turkey. Surprised the West is not reacting to turkey's rapprochement with Russia or destabilize turkey itself.