Turkey 'lost battle with truth' over Armenia genocide: academic

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Istanbul (AFP) - Turkey has lost the battle with truth over its refusal to acknowledge the mass killings of Armenians during World War I as genocide, a Turkish academic who helped break a long-standing taboo on the issue said.

Armenians in Armenia and the diaspora will on April 24 mark the 100th anniversary of what they see as the start of a campaign of genocide by Ottoman forces in World War I to wipe them out of Anatolia.Cengiz Aktar was one of four Turkish intellectuals who in 2008 launched a campaign known as "Ozur Diliyoruz" ("I Apologise") calling for a collective apology for the "great catastrophe" inflicted on Armenians from 1915.

But Turkey to this day has vehemently denied any genocide took place and the Turkish state can in theory under the penal code prosecute anyone who dares to do so.

"I think that Turkey has lost its battle with truth," Aktar, a political scientist at the private Sabanci university in Istanbul told AFP in an interview.

"No-one believes any more in this primitive negationism. The skeleton is so big that it just won't go back in the cupboard."

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People lay flowers at the monument to Armenians killed by Ottoman forces during World War I in Yerev …

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last year presented Armenians with unprecedented condolences for a shared tragedy but Aktar said it does not seem that the government is prepared to go any further.

"This was better than nothing but it is still very far from what the crimes committed in 1915 requires."

Aktar credits Erdogan, who has dominated Turkey for over a decade, with ending many of the taboos in Turkey but said that on the Armenian issue "he stopped on the way".

"What is lacking in Turkey is a visionary person who is prepared to tackle this question head on.

"The sole aim of the government in the year 2015 is to limit its losses," he said.

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People hold candles to commemorate the 99th anniversary of the Ottoman Turkish mass killing of Armen …

Aktar said that one of the main problems was with education, saying many Turks do not know what happened and some use the word "Armenian" as an insult.

"And when there is some education it is so misguided and falsified that it is an insult," he added.

- 'Foundations of the nation' -

Armenians say that 1.5 million of their ancestors were killed in the massacres, but Turkish government officials claim that hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Christians were killed on both sides in a shared wartime tragedy.

Aktar said there was also a genuine fear in Turkey that the descendants of Armenians who were killed or expelled could return to reclaim assets or land that were taken from them in 1915.

Recalling also the expulsion and killing of Orthodox Greeks up to the foundation of modern Turkey in 1923, he added:

"There is above all the fact that modern Turkey is built on the expulsion and annihilation of the non-Muslims who lived in Anatolia.

"Putting that in question is to put in question the foundations of the Turkish nation and for now it is impossible."

But Aktar said he had been encouraged by signs of an evolution in Turkish civil society, with seminars and publications assisting the work of memory.

"A recent opinion poll showed that nine percent of Turks are in favour of recognising the genocide. But I am sure this is much more than just five years ago."

"The genie is out of the bottle. The evolution will be slow but will happen, I believe it."

Russia says Islamist rebel leader Kebekov 'neutralised'

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Moscow (AFP) - Russia said Monday the leader of the Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus was killed in a special operation, and militants confirmed his death.

Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee said that Aliaskhab Kebekov was "neutralised" during a special operation in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan.

Kavkaz Center website, used by rebels to release statements, confirmed Kebekov's death, saying that "our dear brother became a martyr."

Kebekov, 43, a native of Dagestan, took over as leader of the Caucasus Emirate group in 2014 after the death of its veteran Chechen leader Doku Umarov.

Russia included Kebekov on its federal list of terrorists and extremists. He was declared wanted in 2012 for taking part in an illegal armed group.

The United States named Kebekov a "global terrorist", citing his claimed readiness to carry out orders from al-Qaida

The Caucasus Emirate is an Islamist group created in 2007 that has claimed responsibility for a string of deadly attacks in a simmering insurgency.

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Russian soldiers guard a checkpoint of the military firing ground outside the town of Buinaksk in Da …

It aims to establish an Islamist state in the region and has called for global jihad.

Rebel activity has dropped recently, but fighters have travelled from the North Caucasus to take part in conflicts abroad, particularly in the ranks of the Islamist state group fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Russia said Kebekov was killed with four others, including two regional leaders of the insurgents, during the security operation in the town of Buinaksk, which began Sunday and ended Monday.

Forces from Russia's FSB security force and interior ministry surrounded the rebels in a building and opened answering fire after attempts to negotiate broke down, the committee said.

The building where the rebels were hiding was destroyed during the fighting and the bodies were pulled out from under the collapsed walls, the Russian authorities said.

Dagestan's regional interior ministry published photos of a fire burning fiercely inside a collapsed building.

Those in the building included several women, who refused to leave, while a child was handed out and survived, Russia's anti-terrorism committee said.

Russia said Kebekov was directly involved in organising suicide bombings in the southern city of Volgograd in 2013 that killed 34 people.

It said he also played a crucial role in the financial structure of the Caucasus Emirate "practically organising the extortion of money from the public."

Kebekov had been Umarov's deputy, acting as a judge imposing Islamic sharia law, according to Kavkaz-uzel.ru website, which focuses on the Caucasus.

Rebels announced Umarov's death, declaring him a martyr in March 2014. Russia's FSB security service later announced it had "neutralised" Umarov.

Umarov had previously been claimed dead numerous times by the Russian authorities, only for him to resurface in videos calling for jihad.

Under Umarov, the militants claimed responsibility for attacks including the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis in which more than 330 died and the 2011 suicide bombing in Moscow's Domodedovo airport that killed 37 people.

Muslim Refugees Murder 12 Christians by Drowning After Throwing Them From a Ship at Sea

Muslim Refugees Murder 12 Christians by Drowning After Throwing Them From a Ship at Sea

Fifteen Muslims allegedly threw a dozen fellow asylum-seekers overboard as they prayed for rescue from a sinking boat. Is Europe’s crisis at sea turning into anarchy?

It is dangerous enough for the tens of thousands of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Italy on rickety fishing boats without religious tension thrown into the mix.

But in an unthinkable tragedy within an already unimaginable situation, 15 Muslim asylum-seekers reportedly threw 12 Christian asylum-seekers overboard as they made their way from Libya to Sicily this week. “We only pray to Allah here,” the men said, according to others on the boat who said they clung together to protect the remaining Christians from being victims of religiously motivated murder at sea.

The incident took place Wednesday as 105 sub-Saharan Africans were facing trouble at sea in an inflatable rubber dingy that was losing air fast.  According to survivors who were rescued by the Italian coast guard, the boat was sinking and everyone started praying to his or her deity of choice.

Apparently a group of 15 men asked the Christians to stop praying because only Allah would answer their Islamic prayers. When a young Christian man cried loudly asking God to not let the boat capsize, two Muslim men grabbed him by the neck and threw him overboard, according to witness accounts. Then, a group of Muslim men started throwing all who were praying with their hands clasped together overboard. Fifteen men were arrested when their rescue ship reached Palermo.  The prosecutor there says they will face multiple counts of aggravated manslaughter.

According to Palermo police reports after interviews with survivors, the 15 men, who were from Mali, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast, were apparently feisty and antagonistic from the start of the trip, which is in stark contrast to the majority of migrants who are often so tired and afraid that they spend most of the journey in a state of shock. In an interview with La Repubblica, one of the survivors said, “They seemed crazy, they were out of control.  They just grabbed the boy and threw him in the water because he was praying. We tried to stop them but they killed many,” the witness said. “We made a human chain with all of our hands so they couldn’t push more people overboard.”

Monsignor Giancarlo Perego, head of the Vatican’s Foundation for Migrants, warned that the incident may have just been a “moment of fury” and not an outright act of Christian persecution. “We need not to exaggerate the facts and turn this into religious hate,” he told reporters in Rome.

On Friday, a group of 70 migrants, including a six-month old baby, with severe burns were rescued from a sinking rubber dinghy. They told authorities that a gas canister had exploded while they were waiting to board the vessel, but because of the backlog of migrants in the Libyan port, the traffickers forced them on the vessel anyway. They were at sea for two days before being rescued, and 23 were airlifted to burn centers on the Italian mainland.

Early Friday morning, an Italian-flagged fishing vessel was commandeered by unknown gunmen who later claimed to be part of the Libyan coast guard. The Italian navy, which is running a defense mission along the Libyan coast near Italy’s offshore oil platforms, had to wrest back control of the ship, which was apparently headed toward Misrata, said Giovanni Tumbiolo, head of the Italian fisherman’s association. Early reports suggest the seven-man crew was locked in the ship’s lower compartment.

The seizure of the Italian ships is yet another incident in what is fast-becoming anarchy on the high seas. The European Union’s Frontex border-control agency said last week that one of their rescue ships patrolling the waters under their Triton mission was fired upon by armed traffickers who wrestled back one of the trafficking boats. In early April, an Italian coast guard ship also reported coming under fire as it rescued migrants.

The recent violent incidents play into fears in Italy that there are Islamic extremists among the genuine refugees trying to reach safety.  In February, ISIS threatened tomarch on Rome, putting Italians on edge with even politicians warning that the boat people coming from Libya could be a conduit for jihadi fighters to sneak into the country.  More than 11,000 people have been rescued at sea after leaving Libya and brought to safety on Sicily since April 11.  Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who is visiting the United States this week, says he will ask President Barack Obama for support to tackle the problem in Libya. When the leaders meet in Washington on Friday, he is expected to ask for American drone surveillance over the Mediterranean to help with anti-terrorism surveillance.

Back in Italy, the boats keep coming. On Friday, Italy’s coast guard said it expects as many as a dozen ships are now leaving Libyan ports every day, carrying anywhere between 50 and 500 people.

CAIRO (TheBlaze/AP) — A video released by the Islamic State group appears to show the killing of two different groups of captured Ethiopian Christians in Libya.

The 29-minute video released online Sunday purportedly shows two groups of captives. It says one group is held by an IS affiliate in eastern Libya and the other by an affiliate in the south.

A masked fighter delivers a long statement before the video switches between footage that purportedly shows the captives in the south being shot dead and the captives in the east being beheaded on a beach.

WARNING: Contains GRAPHIC Images

NOTE: If the video above starts and stops frequently, we recommend you buffer the video until the end, prior to viewing.

Τουλάχιστον 33 νεκροί και 50 τραυματίες από έκρηξη στο Αφγανιστάν

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 18 Απρ 2015

Τουλάχιστον 33 άνθρωποι έχασαν τη ζωή τους και περισσότεροι από 50 τραυματίστηκαν σε διπλή βομβιστική επίθεση αυτοκτονίας στην αφγανική πόλη του Τζαλαλαμπάντ. Σύμφωνα με τα τοπικά μέσα ενημέρωσης, ένας από τους επιτιθέμενους ανατίναξε εκρηκτικά γιλέκο του κοντά στην ιδιωτική τράπεζα της Καμπούλ Τράπεζα, όπου δεκάδες άνθρωποι κάνουν ουρά για να συλλέξουν τους μισθούς τους συγκεντρωθεί. Μια άλλη έκρηξη σημειώθηκε κοντά σε ένα ιερό και δημοτικά κτίρια. 
Το Ισλαμικό Κράτος ανέλαβε την ευθύνη για τις δύο εκρήξεις. 

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ΕΝΑ ΙΔΙΑΙΤΕΡΟ ΝΤΟΚΥΜΑΝΤΕΡ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΣΥΜΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ TV KOSMOS

5 Things to Know About the 2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 17 Απρ 2015

Here are 5 Things to Know about the Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class

1. Mercedes may market it as an SUV, but it’s really just a hatchback version of the CLA sedan with some additional ground clearance. As such, it doesn’t have that elevated SUV seating position, and both back seat and trunk space are negligible.

2. It has the same sluggish throttle response and wonky automatic transmission as the CLA. It’s hard to drive smoothly.

3. It has sharp handling and a tight turning circle, but the ride is overly firm and crashy.

4. There are two versions: the GLA250 with its 208-hp turbocharged four-cylinder and the GLA45 AMG with a 355 hp version of the same engine.

5. It has more standard safety features than most luxury SUVs.

Taliban IED Sends Afghan National Army MRAP Flying - Afghanistan War 2015

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 17 Απρ 2015

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Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 17 Απρ 2015

Fashion show looks from the WATSON X WATSON SS 2016 Collections at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Australia. The Official Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week YouTube channel provides extensive coverage of runway shows including ELLERY, Alice Mccall, Zhivago, We Are Handsome, Tome, Betty Tran, Maticevski and Ginger & Smart