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xtruss · 3 years ago

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International Observers: Hypocrite, Liar, Deceiver, Conspirator, Manipulator and Double-Faced United States, NATO (North Atlantic Terrorist Organization) & Puppet Kiev Laid the Groundwork for Donbass Independence Recognition

— Ekaterina Blinova | Sputnik International | Tuesday February 22, 2022

Fighters of the Azov paramilitary battalion, a pro-Ukrainian volunteer armed group, take part in combat drills near the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on February 6, 2015 - Sputnik International © AFP 2022/Petro Zadorozhnyy

In the wake of the Kremlin's recognition of Donetsk and Lugansk, the US, UK, and EU promised more sanctions on Russia. However, these are not the tough measures they have threatened Moscow with for the past few months. Rather, they are comparable to the sanctions adopted by the West after Crimea's reunification with Russia, according to reports.

"The United States has declared the imposition of sanctions relating to the recognition of the two republics. But these sanctions are purely cosmetic", says Gilbert Doctorow, an international relations and Russian affairs analyst. "Europe is going to take some sanctions against individuals whom they say have played a role in these latest decisions by Russia relating to recognition. But that's also purely cosmetic. Serious economic consequences - I don't see any whatsoever".

Meanwhile, Berlin has frozen the certification of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. The German Federal Grid Agency temporarily delayed the certification of the pipeline late last year. The agency told Sputnik that it has no forecast about the timing of the renewal of the certification of the Nord Stream 2 operator yet.

Despite the US trying to convince Germany to nix the gas pipeline, Berlin never promised to eliminate the project altogether, according to Doctorow. Nord Stream 2 is designed to deliver 55 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas per year to Europe, thus doubling the original Nord Stream capacity to a total of 110 bcm.

"What happened [on 21 February] is quite minor in terms of an infraction of the Western-dominated world", says Doctorow. "So, I don't expect anything. However, what happened yesterday is only the first of many steps that will come as Russia seeks to get the capitulation of the United States and NATO to its demands of 15 December regarding the reorganisation of European security".

Situation on the frontlines of DPR, Donbass ©Sputnik/Sergey Averin/Go to the photo bank

Kiev Left Donbass With Little, If Any, Choice

Russia on 21 February recognised the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) in response to calls to do so by the Russian State Duma and the DPR, LPR leadership as well as to Kiev's continuing refusal to follow the provisions of the Minsk agreements, struck in 2014 and 2015 and approved by the UN Security Council. The recognition came as the Ukrainian government had amassed considerable forces along the contact line with the two Donbass republics and ramped up shelling last week in a clear violation of the Minsk accords. The leadership of the DPR and LPR announced the evacuation of elderly people, women, and children to Russia. The OSCE reported over 2,000 ceasefire violations on the day of the two republics' recognition.

"Over the past eight years, Kiev has repeatedly infringed the Minsk Agreements in many ways, including the murder of the former prime minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko", says Joe Quinn, a Paris-based political commentator and author. "Kiev felt confident that it could flout the agreements with impunity because it believed it had the political, economic and military backing of both the US and major European nations".

Azov battalion soldiers take oath in Kiev before being sent to Donbass ©Alexandr Maksimenko/Go to the photo bank

Earlier, the Kiev government made it clear that it would not engage in dialogue with the DPR and LPR, which left the breakaway republics with little, if any, alternatives, according to British-Serbian political commentator Marko Gasic. On 9 February, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that Kiev would not adhere to the Minsk agreements on "Moscow's conditions", and would not engage in direct talks with the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, which constitutes one of the core provisions of the Minsk deal.

"Kiev does therefore look like it has forfeited any moral right to govern those people since it probably prefers to exterminate or expel them", Gasic remarks.

Moreover, it has been clear to any objective observer of the situation that Kiev and its Western allies "have always intended to retake the Donbass region by force if necessary", according to Quinn. If Kiev had its way, it would continue to harass the people of Donbass, the commentator notes, adding that in the aftermath of Russia's recognition the people of Eastern Ukraine will be shielded from Kiev's aggression.

"[Recognition of the DPR and LPR] put a stop to the hot war between the two republics, Donetsk and Lugansk, and the Kievan regime", says Doctorow. "It turned the conflict into what is called a frozen conflict, similar to what exists in Transnistria, with respect to Moldova, what exists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, with respect to Georgia, nobody is fighting. Nobody is dying".

Ukraine marks UPA anniversary ©Sputnik/Stringer/Go to the photo bank

Donbass Independence is Result of US-NATO Actions

The unfolding Ukrainian crisis is the product of the US and its NATO allies' policies, according to the observers.

"Had Washington properly encouraged Kiev to reach an accommodation with the people of Donbass, then Moscow's declaration regarding Donbass independence and protection would not have been necessary, nor made", says Marko Gasic.

Under these circumstances, Russia's recognition of Donbass' sovereignty "has to be measured against the danger of doing nothing, a passivity which would clearly allow a real humanitarian catastrophe to unfold in the Donbass", according to the British-Serbian commentator. In addition to this, Moscow faced clear geopolitical danger posed by "the military intentions of Kiev's NATO puppet regime in its joint operations with NATO on Russia's doorstep", he notes.

However, the West's understanding of the situation is "limited", according to Gilbert Doctorow. He notes that the most surprising case is Germany and Chancellor Olaf Scholz's remark that Russia's warning of the ongoing genocide in Eastern Ukraine by the Kiev military and neo-Nazi battalions is "ridiculous".

While the US, UK, and EU are not listening to Russia's arguments, they can't go much further in demonising Russia, Doctorow believes.

"We've already hit bottom. But take Russia seriously? Yes", he says.

As for recognition of Crimea and Donbass, the US and NATO set a solid legal precedent when they recognised Kosovo's sovereignty and carved the region out of Serbia, according to Doctorow. The recognition of independence on the basis of the Donbass republics' popular mandate and the right to self-determination is a very strong legal argument, he notes. "[It is] very embarrassing for the United States to try to say no", the analyst concludes.

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anactualpileofnacl · 7 years ago

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wo A H I WAS HECCIN TAGGED WOWIE

Rules: answer the questions then tag 20 blogs you’d like to know better!

Tagged by: @smol-trash-alien

Nickname: Salt :000 Bls it has nothing to do with II Salt, my nickname predates me getting into the OSC

Zodiac: Sagittarius and/or I guess Ophiuchus? Does that even count at all

Height: 5′5″? The last time I checked was a year ago.

Time: 6:20 PM

Favorite band/artist: Crywank,,,,

Last movie I saw: Cabaret- I didn’t even finish it because I got distracted.

Last thing I googled. ‘insignificant’ because I didn’t know if I was spelling it right-

Side blog(s): ABetterAskThanThat but I’m really dumb and lazy so it’s on hiatus

Do I get asks: not really

Why did I choose my username: I actually got my nickname Salt because I was extremely upset and salty over this one manipulative ***** and I had changed my nickname on Discord to AnActualPileofSalt. But that name was stolen on here from a Tumblr I made once, never used, then forgot the info. So NaCl went over place of Salt

Following: 301

Average amount of sleep: Depends on how late I stay up, but usually 5 or less a day

Lucky number: I don’t really have on

What am I wearing: T-Shirt and Pyjama pants. Fun.

Dream job: Honestly anything along the lines of artist, animator, or writer. I really love doing all three things.

Dream trip: Going to Berlin!!!! Or just- anywhere in Germany!!!!!!

Favorite food: I don’t really have one, but I do love artichokes

Play an instrument: I can play the piano, I just don’t.

Hair color: Dark brown, but rn it’s dyed red

Eye color: hazel? Idk it depends on the lighting, but usually they look gray, green, or blue.

Most iconic song: gg Allstar by Smashmouth

Languages you speak: English is my native language, but I can hold a conversation in German, and I... know a 7th grade’s worth of Spanish.

Random fact: I have this really fat cat and I like. just now. realized that I left her in a tiny plastic drawer for anywhere between 4-5 hours. sobs,,,, she usually uses it as a bed but the power went out and I 100% forgot about her.

Describe yourself in an aesthetic: I don’t,, think I really understand this one,,,,, But I guess either grunge or just in general sadcore??? Me??????? Oh gosh oh gee 20 blogs. well okay. I can’t do 20 but I can do... a few. Espeically since I’m so socially weird that I’m only gonna tag people I’ve interacted with before, even if it was just once.

@eraser-is-gay @timeforbrakeatflake @ballooj @musty-yew @ratchey @randomleopardlad

#i lowkey love these things #but doing this made Pony Town lag #huh #Wowie I wish I had more friends #so I could tag them #but I'm so weird socially that I hate talking to people

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karenrosee · 3 years ago

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Betting tips from the pros

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Serie A

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UEFA Champions League

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theteenagetrickster · 5 years ago

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How Henry Ford, Who Published Racist Diatribes Against Jazz, Helped Popularize the Sound of Jazz and R&B - The Truth About Cars

Henry Ford playing fiddle with his old-time dance orchestra on his 70th birthday in 1933. (From the collections of The Henry Ford)

Henry Ford was unquestionably a great man, but he was not a very good man. As an entrepreneur and industrialist, he may have changed the world — for the better, I personally think — but as a human being he had serious failings. According to Richard Bak’s , the elder Ford would humiliate his son, Edsel, in public because Henry, a farm boy, worried that his only child would become the soft son of a rich man. That practice continued into Edsel’s adulthood.

Clara (Mrs. Ford) had to make her peace with Henry’s long-term relationship with Evangeline Cote Dahlinger, whom the industrialist met when he was 50 and she was 23 — his associate C. Harold Wills’ secretary at the Highland Park plant. Her son John Dahlinger asserted that he was the son of Henry Ford, whom he strongly resembled.

Ford’s public life was no less unsavory. His bigotries are well known. In his mind he divided the Jewish community between “good Jews” — those he personally knew, like architect Albert Kahn — and “bad Jews,” the boogeymen “bankers” of his fevered imaginations. Less well-known is the fact that many of the most hateful things attributed to Ford were not his own words.

Henry Ford was no writer. After foolishly for defamation, ignoring the old saying about not suing folks who buy ink by the trainload, Ford was shown, in a humiliating fashion on the witness stand, to not be a proficient reader. In guiding the development of the Model T, we know that Ford preferred wooden models of parts to blueprints. He may have been dyslexic. He certainly didn’t have the skills to write for publication.

Ford’s autobiography, My Life and Work, was ghostwritten by Samuel Crowther.

The task of expressing Ford’s distrust of world Jewry fell to Ernest G. Liebold, Henry Ford’s personal secretary and general manager of , the newspaper Ford used as his public megaphone. Liebold first came to Ford’s attention when, in 1912, Henry took over the small Dearborn bank where Liebold worked as a teller. The son of Prussian immigrants, he was precise, rigid, unemotional, and willing to do things that Ford wouldn’t ask his other associates to do (well, other than Harry Bennett). Over time his services to Ford included being his personal business representative, signing the automaker’s personal checks, responding to Ford’s mail, acting as Ford’s personal spokesman to the media, and, perhaps most importantly, controlling Ford’s schedule and who had access to him.

Liebold, like Ford, was also a man with Jews on the brain. He believed in Jewish conspiracies and, with Ford’s backing, set up an agency in New York City to investigate prominent Jews and those Gentiles he considered to be doing the bidding of Jewish masters. He surrounded himself with like-minded Jew-haters, an interesting mix of former government officials, ex-Secret Service men, czarist Russian emigres, fanatics, and ex-cons.

At the Dearborn Independent, Liebold began running a series under the heading of The International Jew, alleging all sorts of nefarious activities to those of the Mosaic persuasion. Jews supposedly had a “dictatorship” in the United States, where they maintained secret control of newspaper editors, bootlegged whiskey, Tammany Hall, and even major league baseball.

Liebold’s (and Ford’s) bigotries were not restricted to Jews. They saw blacks as inferior and criminal, though that, too, was blamed on Hebrews. The Independent blamed lynchings of blacks on “Negro outbursts” provoked by “n***** gin” allegedly produced by Jews.

One of African-Americans’ great cultural contributions to America and the world, jazz music, was also seen by Ford and Liebold as a Jewish plot*. Jewish Jazz – Moron Music – Becomes Our National Music, was published in the August 6, 1921 issue of the Dearborn Independent. Recorded music had been around since Edison’s 1877 wax-cylinder phonograph, and the “modern” Victrola that played Emile Berliner’s flat recordings was introduced in 1906. However, though the phonograph was a great success, in the 1920s much of what was considered popular music was still being sold as sheet music, and much of that originated from music publishing firms in New York City’s “Tin Pan Alley,” where many of the composers, lyricists, and publishers were from Jewish backgrounds.

From :

“Many people have wondered whence come the waves upon waves of musical slush that invade decent parlors and set the young people of this generation imitating the drivel of morons… Popular Music is a Jewish monopoly. Jazz is a Jewish creation. The mush, the slush, the sly suggestion, the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes, are of Jewish origin.

Monkey talk, jungle squeals, grunts and squeaks and gasps suggestive of cave love are camouflaged by a few feverish notes and admitted to homes where the thing itself, unaided by the piano, would be stamped out in horror. Girls and boys a little while ago were inquiring who paid Mrs. Rip Van Winkle’s rent while Mr. Rip Van Winkle was away. In decent parlors the fluttering music sheets disclosed expressions taken directly from the cesspools of modern capitals, to be made the daily slang, the thoughtlessly hummed remarks of high school boys and girls.”

And you thought jazz was about improvising on a musical theme.

In addition to the less savory aspects of Henry Ford’s musical tastes, he had a genuine affection for the kinds of traditional music that many Americans played at home and at community events. Among Ford’s personal artifacts at the Henry Ford Museum are his Stradivarius and Guarneri violins that he used to play fiddle music.

Ford started subsidizing old-timey music. Richard A. Peterson, the author of Creating Country Music, said that Ford, “put more money into promoting country music in the 1920s than anyone else. Ford was frightened by what he saw as the urban decadence of couples jazz dancing. In response he organized fiddling contests and promoted square dances across the country to encourage what he saw as older, more wholesome forms of entertainment.”

By the way, before you read “urban” as a euphemism for “black,” as it is sometimes used today, Ford genuinely didn’t like big cities and regretted how the success of the Model T created wrenching changes for the rural America of his youth.

Among those wholesome forms of entertainment, found in many homes, were reed organs, also known as pump organs. Once quite popular, you can find pump organs free for the carting these days on Craigslist. A reed organ is like an accordion with a steroid problem that you sit at to play. Foot pedals pump a bellows that sounds the reeds. Ford liked organs – there are at least a couple in the Henry Ford Museum’s collection, and he and Clara had an elaborate and costly pipe organ installed at their Fairlane estate by the Estey organ company, with the keyboard placed in a spot of honor in the mansion’s living room

Henry Ford was a tinkerer at heart, completely self-taught. He learned enough to become the chief operating engineer of Detroit’s Edison Illuminating Co., but he was far from a university-trained engineer. Laurens Hammond, on the other hand, was a graduate of Cornell’s engineering school.

Laurens Hammond (Hammond publicity photo)

Coincidentally, Hammond’s first job after graduating from college and serving in the military in World War One was for the automobile industry in Detroit, for the Gray Motor Company, which made marine engines. While at Gray, he invented a silent spring-driven clock that was successful enough that he was able to leave Gray and set up a small office in New York City. It was there he then developed an early version of shutter-glasses for viewing 3D films. That wasn’t a commercial success, though, and Hammond moved to Chicago to continue work on a synchronous electric motor he had invented.

Because it was linked to the frequency of the alternating current electric supply, it was very, very accurate. It had very little torque, though, so little that the motor had to be hand-cranked to start, but Hammond found a market for a low powered, but very accurate electric motor. Going back to his earlier invention, a clock, he replaced the spring drive with his synchronous motor, which could be started up by spinning the clock’s hands.

Though the clock company was an initial success, the Great Depression took its toll on Hammond Clock. Laurens Hammond pursued a couple of other inventions, like a self-dealing card table for playing bridge, but he ultimately found success in a market segment known better for bingo than for bridge.

America has always been a secular country with a fairly religious populace. Thousands and thousands of churches dotted America’s landscape in the 1930s. Many of them needed an organ, but something from the Aeolian or Skinner pipe organ companies was beyond the means of many less affluent churches.

Inspired by Thadeous Cahill’s Telharmonium, a massive, 200-ton machine patented in 1897 that was the progenitor for every electronic music synthesizer in use since, Hammond developed the “tonewheel generator.” To create music electronically, you first need something that can create a pure tone — a sin wave. Those pure tones, when combined with harmonics (integer multiples of the base tone’s frequency) and partials (fractional multiples), along with attack, sustain, and decay characteristics, are what make a violin sound like a violin and a flute sound like a flute.

For centuries, pipe organ makers have used that method to imitate other instruments, though to this writer’s ears, no matter what the “stop” on the pipe organ is labeled, it’s going to still sound like a pipe organ, perhaps an organ trying to sound like a flute, but still an organ.

By the 1930s there were vacuum tube-based oscillators that could create pure tones, but the sheer number of tubes necessary to create the many needed tones made tube-based organs cumbersome, hot, and not very reliable. Instead, Hammond pursued an electromechanical method of creating tones called a tonewheel.

A period article from Popular Science magazine called Hammond’s invention an “Electric Piano” and managed to get both how the organ worked (it used tonewheels, not vacuum tubes to generate tones) and where Hammond’s company was located (Chicago, not New York) wrong.

Hammond didn’t invent the tonewheel but he perfected it. Imagine something like a bicycle sprocket spinning past an electromagnetic pickup set radially near the teeth. As the profile of the sprocket’s teeth passes the pickup, it induces an alternating current whose frequency and amplitude are related to the number of teeth, their shape, and the sprocket’s speed. Using his quiet, accurate motors to power the tonewheels resulted in tones that didn’t waver. Hammond organs with tonewheel generators never really need tuning (though a lack of lubrication will affect pitch). Since the tonewheel motor was still low on torque, the original prototype had a hand crank, replaced in later production units with higher torque starter motor, to get the tonewheels up to speed before switching to the synchronous drive.

At first, Hammond thought he would sell a novelty called the Electric Flute that would sell for $30 or $40 dollars.

The Ethics of the Fathers responds to the question, “who is wise?”, with the answer, “he who recognizes the birth of something,” someone who sees the possible consequences of something from its start. It is a rare inventor who sees the full potential of even his or her own invention. Laurens Hammond himself thought Don Leslie’s rotating speakers made his organs sound worse, but Hammond Organ eventually bought Leslie’s ideas and his company, and today the swirling sound of a “Leslie” is closely associated with Hammond organs.

Hammond did, however, realize that his tonewheels had more potential than just being a plaything and started to develop a fully voiced organ.

That presented a problem because, ironically, Laurens Hammond couldn’t play keyboards. You can find publicity photos of Hammond sitting at one of his organs, but you will search in vain for a film or recordings of him actually playing the things.

Not being able to play an instrument is not necessarily an impediment to inventing or improving a musical instrument. Nobody today cares how good a violinist Antonio Stradivari was. Leo Fender couldn’t play guitar or bass, and he pretty much perfected the electric guitar and with George Fullerton, who also couldn’t play, Fender invented the electric bass. Hammond, though, was also tone-deaf, so profoundly so that he has been described as “amusical.” Nearly everyone that he hired after he started the organ project, whether they were secretaries, bookkeepers, or engineers, they were also musicians because he needed their ears.

Work on the prototype and patent sample started in 1933. Sources say that patent approval was sped up because the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office saw the invention as commercially viable and thought it would create jobs during the worldwide economic depression. The patent was granted in April, 1934 and production of the Hammond Model A organ began in 1935. While Hammond was waiting to hear from the patent office, like any inventor he must have had concerns if his invention was going to be commercially successful or not.

By the time production started, though, Hammond knew he had at least one customer, a very important customer.

In February 1934, after the prototype organ was returned to Hammond’s Chicago office from the USPTO, two engineers from Dearborn, Michigan visited Hammond’s facility at the personal request of Henry Ford. Somehow Ford had found out about Hammond’s new organ, perhaps from a source in the patent office, and he wanted an expert opinion. The engineers must have approved because they placed a tentative order for the first six Hammond Model A organs.

Thus, Henry Ford was the first customer for the Hammond organ, even if he didn’t end up owning the first one.

This is a good time to clear up some confusion. For a long time, there was a Hammond Model A on display in a place associated with another Model A, the Henry Ford Museum, one of those six. It was thought by some that that was the first production Hammond organ, a notion Henry did nothing to rebut. Additionally, the Hammond company promoted the idea that famed composer George Gershwin got the first Hammond organ. Considering how Henry felt about “Jewish jazz,” and considering that Gershwin was born Yakov Gershowitz and wrote some of the most famous jazz and blues compositions ever, it isn’t surprising that Henry might have rather people thought of him as owning the first Hammond organ, not Gershwin.

While there’s no record if Henry Ford and Laurens Hammond ever met in person, Ford did get a chance to personally check out an early Hammond Model A. One of the first production units was loaded onto Hammond’s beat up Ford Model A panel truck, driven by Emory Penny, sales manager for the Hammond Clock Co., and John Hanert, Hammond’s chief engineer. They were headed for the instrument’s first public demonstration at the 1935 Industrial Arts Exposition in the RCA Building (now 30 Rockefeller Plaza) in New York’s Radio City. Before they got to NYC, however, Penny and Hanert detoured to Detroit to show it to a very important customer before the general public got to hear it.

The roads between Chicago and Detroit in 1935 weren’t exactly up to modern Interstate highway standards and proved to be a test of the organ’s durability. When they got to Dearborn, Ford had them directed to drive the now muddy truck right into the Ford Engineering Laboratory building and onto its shiny oak floors. The industrialist brought along a “hillbilly” band to accompany him as he tested out the organ. His reaction was overwhelmingly positive.

“In twenty years, there should be one in every home in America,” Ford told Penny, adding, “You should sell organs at $300 . . . and don’t fall into the hands of those Eastern Bankers.”

Despite apparently thinking they could be sold for a fraction of the $1,250 introductory price, Ford gave his personal approval to the purchase of those half dozen Model A Hammond organs.

While en route to New York, Penny wrote to Hammond, “I feel he [Ford] would lend us half a million dollars.”

One of those six instruments was the organ that was on display for over 25 years at the Henry Ford Museum. Unfortunately, that piece of musical history was destroyed in a 1970 fire at the museum along with many other artifacts.

Incidentally, the actual first Hammond Model A didn’t belong to either Henry Ford or George Gershwin, though the fact that they endorsed the instrument with their purchases was undoubtedly a factor in Hammond soon being deluged with 1,400 backorders. Hammond Model A #1 ended up at a Kansas City dealer, who used it as a traveling demonstration unit for years until it was sold to a local church. It is now at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

Bob Pierce, a salesman for that dealer, described the early days on the road with it in his book, the Pierce Piano Atlas.

“Three of us, an organist, a maintenance man and I traveled in safari-like fashion with a van and an automobile for the next three years. We drove through Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa, Arkansas, and Texas, hitting every little burg with a population over 100. We demonstrated the Model A on university campuses and radio stations, for women’s clubs, in music stores and churches, and even mortuaries. The only places we avoided were the gin mills.” That last bit proved to be ironic.

Hammond #1 ended up in a church and Bob Pierce’s sales team made sales stops at churches part of their regular routine. That wasn’t coincidental. Pipe organs were expensive and the Hammond Model A was a reasonable facsimile at a much lower price. The Hammond Model A was so competitive that pipe organ makers even lobbied the Federal Trade Commission to prosecute Hammond for calling his instrument a true organ instead of their preferred term, an “electrotone.” That backfired, as tests conducted at the University of Chicago’s chapel showed that experts were unable to distinguish between a Hammond and a $75,000 Skinner pipe organ. Hammond got slapped for unsupported claims in his advertising, but he won the right to call it a “Hammond organ.”

Whether Hammond salesmen deliberately marketed the Model A to black churches because they had less money to spend on organs, or whether it was because there were African American churches in the general vicinity of the Hammond factory on Chicago’s West Side, Hammond organs undoubtedly quickly became popular in black houses of worship. The Hammond B3 model was introduced in 1954 and added a percussive attack to the instrument’s tone and a “scanner” vibrato that fit well with the strains of the gospel music performed in those churches. The B3’s funky sound also fit new forms of popular music better than the tone of Wurlitzer’s competing organs, which were more in tune with rollerskating rinks.

The sound of the Hammond organ in church inspired musicians like Fats Waller, “Wild” Bill Davis, and the great Jimmy Smith to take up the instrument in a jazz setting. Smith’s protege Jimmy McGriff did likewise with the blues. Soon nightclubs purchased Hammond organs for visiting players to use just as they would have pianos. Moving from jazz and blues clubs to rhythm and blues bands like Booker T and the MGs was just a hop, skip and jump, making the Hammond B3 organ one of the elemental sounds of soul music.

Henry Ford died in 1947. By the time the Hammond organ started becoming popular in African-American music in the 1940s, though, Ford was already beginning to show signs of dementia, so he likely was not aware of what was happening in the world of music. If he had been aware of the kind of success the Hammond organ had, and with whom it had that success, he might have had some reservations about sending those engineers to Chicago.

In any case, that is how Henry Ford, a notorious bigot and hater of jazz and African American music, ended up inadvertently helping the Hammond organ become one of the foundational sounds of black worship, jazz music, and rhythm & blues.

*Little did Ford know that the Kosofsky family of New Orleans helped jazz pioneer Louis Armstrong buy his first horn.

This content was originally published here.

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freespeechradionews · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on FSRN

New Post has been published on https://fsrn.org/2017/02/volunteers-use-art-therapy-to-support-ukrainian-civilians-amid-record-ceasefire-violations/

Volunteers use art therapy to support Ukrainian civilians amid record ceasefire violations

The month of February brought record levels of ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine, with the city of the city of Avdiivka one of the most affected front line hot spots. For the roughly 16,000 people living there, that’s meant often lengthy periods of time without water, power and gas.

To help offset the anxiety for families in the city, humanitarian aid groups and volunteers playing a key role in emotional support, some providing art therapy music sessions and paint workshops. Filip Warwick reports.

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On the outskirts of Avdiivka, a government controlled city on Ukraine’s eastern front-line, sounds of weapon fire echo into the night. February 1st saw more than 10,000 explosions, a new one-day record, observed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the OSCE, which monitors ceasefire violations.

The strenuous conditions in front line towns during periods of ceasefire violations bring increases in shock and stress to the local population.

To help young people cope with conflict-related emotions, Ukrainian-born Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra violinist and volunteer, Marina Bondas, organizes art therapy music sessions in schools, hospitals and special care homes for children.

“Well, the thing about music therapy is every rhythm, every kind of sound, has different influence on the mental state, and you can make influence on this. From this, I choose my repertoire,” Bondas explains. “I start actually with classical music, a little bit Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Fritz Kreisler, it’s my favorite composer, he has lovely pieces, very short and very emotional and very positive, so people can get some hope. And then I play also not classical music, like folk music, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Jewish, and then some tango, some jazz, some pop music also.”

At the beginning of the month the city experienced the worst ceasefire violations since the Minsk II agreement, signed in February 2015.

Avdiivka local, Aleksei Savkevich, lives in the city’s old quarter with his wife and two children. His house is some two miles from the front-line and during the uptick in fighting shells fell near his kitchen.

While making tea he tells me one of Bondas’s concerts in the city helped his family to live through this difficult period: “When Marina came to our city during the escalation of this conflict, we had no electricity and we had no water. For me these concerts really give some more power to surviving these events because music really helps to feel that everything will be good.”

Responsible for monitoring ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine, the OSCE registered last year over 330,000 heavy weapons explosions along the 300-mile-long front-line.

“It’s often quite amazing to see how they still try to go about their normal ways,” says Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE mission, Alexander Hug, who witnessed how this month’s ceasefire violations affected the civilian population on the ground. “They stand at bus stations while the bus station is shaking from incoming shells just a few hundred meters [away]. But if you look at the people, if you talk to them, you can feel the stress, the permanent stress that they are under, a lot of emotion, a lot of agitation.”

Born in the Soviet Union but having lived in Germany for the past 17 years, Alan Meyer is a Berlin-based Israeli painter. He organizes art therapy paint sessions in eastern Ukraine and believes art can help children to share their thoughts and emotions, which may otherwise be overlooked. But he also says there are limits to what art therapy can do and help.

“I try not to have illusions about the power of the art. Art is not going to, by some miracle, save the world and give world peace, or whatever,” Meyer points out. “I think that art is important, art is something makes life more colorful, because there are always some people who crave for art more than others, that just reality. And if these people cannot have this in these areas, that’s going to be a sad reality.”

Twenty-one-year-old Zhenia Vasilieva attended one of Meyer’s art therapy paint sessions and describes the children’s reaction: “I saw their happiness on their faces, and I was happy, too. This format is unusual for this city and I hope in the future we will practice this format of art-therapy.”

With parents present during the art therapy workshop, Vasilieva says the session had a positive impact for all participants.

“In the first day, when they did frames, this was like family team-building,” Vasilieva says. “And children and parents communicated. This is very important for family relationships.”

Prior to Meyer’s departure from Avdiidvka, he says he wants to teach the children the concept of helping themselves – with art therapy paint sessions providing the basics until his next trip to eastern Ukraine.

“I leave them with the idea that they can do it themselves. Because everything I do is short lessons, it’s not like I sit with them and they draw very slowly, sort of with the pencil. Not something that some person who comes for a short period of time can manage, it’s impossible,” Meyer explains. “What I give them is the impression, the art is something you can do yourself: you have some colors, some piece of paper, piece of canvass, and in one day or two, you have a painting that’s going to be beautiful.”

A truce between Russia-backed separatists and the Ukrainian army was due to come into force February 20, but failed to last half a day.

While Bondas and Meyer try to bring some comfort to the children of Avdiivka, the sounds of battle continue on the eastern front, with little to suggest change any time soon.

#art therapy #Avdiidvka #Filip Warwick #Marina Bondas #music #painting #Ukraine

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interkomitet · 4 years ago

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OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation under Germany’s Chairmanship will focus on dialogue, transparency and confidence-building

Only a real dialogue will help promote politico-military co-operation and regain lost confidence and rebuild trust, said Germany’s Deputy Foreign Minister Niels Annen as he opened Germany’s Chairmanship of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC) today.

Addressing representatives of the OSCE participating States from Berlin via video teleconference, Annen said: “The noticeable erosion of the European security order through a series of conflicts – I say this not least with a view to the annexation of Crimea by Russia and the conflict in eastern Ukraine – have a direct impact on the work of the FSC. Trust is the most important asset in the OSCE – but it is disappearing day by day.”

Recalling the 45th anniversary of the OSCE’s landmark document, the Helsinki Final Act marked last month, Deputy Minister Annen noted: “45 years ago in Helsinki we were brought together by the shared knowledge that co-operation is better than confrontation. That co-operation means more security for us all.”

Referring to the German FSC Chair’s work programme he said that topics for security dialogues will include small arms and light weapons (SALW), UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, the modernization of the Vienna Document and new technologies such as artificial intelligence.

The first security dialogue will be devoted to the fight against illegal use of small arms and light weapons, said Deputy Foreign Minister Annen recalling that the OSCE Document on Small Arms and Light Weapons celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year.

“With its normative specifications for the handling of illegal small arms and light weapons and stocks of conventional ammunition, the OSCE is doing real pioneering work”, he said reminding that the illegal use of small arms kills nearly a million people and injures an even greater number worldwide each year.

The security dialogue on new technologies and their military applications will focus on discussions about new threat perceptions generated by them.

Making the link between the current state of the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and how it is being put into practice at the national level in the OSCE participating States will be another important topic for Germany’s FSC Chair, as the resolution marks its 20th year anniversary.

Deputy Foreign Minister Annen also noted the importance of continuing the Structured Dialogue saying that for a number of countries, including Germany, a revitalization of arms control and confidence-building measures is a particular focus.

“In the context of the Structured Dialogue, we spoke in ten meetings about measures for more transparency, risk reduction and prevention of military incidents, about threat perceptions, stability and its politico-military requirements. We want to continue this dialogue. We appeal to all participating States to understand the Structured Dialogue as a valuable and unique forum for exchange,” he concluded.

The Chairmanship of the Forum for Security Co-operation rotates three times a year. It takes the lead in setting the agenda for each meeting of the Forum and brings attention to issues concerning the implementation of commitments adopted by the Forum.

http://interkomitet.com/international-parliamentary-organizations/osce/osce-forum-for-security-co-operation-under-germany-s-chairmanship-will-focus-on-dialogue-transparency-and-confidence-building/

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armeniaitn · 5 years ago

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Armenia Politics News Digest for Friday, February 14, 2020

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/daily-digests/politics-digests/armenia-politics-news-digest-for-friday-february-14-2020-2208-14-02-2020/

Armenia Politics News Digest for Friday, February 14, 2020

Here is the Daily Digest of political news for Armenia for Friday, February 14, 2020. The notable posts are (we hope you enjoy them):

Armenian PM attends opening of Munich Security Conference

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the opening ceremony of the Munich Security Conference.

President of the Security Conference Wolfgang Ischinger and President of Germany Frank -Walter Steinmeier delivered welcoming speeches.

The Munich Security Conference brings together presidents, heads of government and foreign ministers from over 40 countries.

Among the participants are Armenian President Armen Sarkissian, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Djavad Zarif, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger and others.

Read original article here.

Armenia, Azerbaijan leaders to participate in a discussion on Nagorno Karabakh in Munich

On the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will participate in a discussion on Nagorno Karabakh.

The discussion will take place on February 15. The conversation titled “An update on Nagorno Karabakh” will kick off at 20:30 Yerevan time and will continue until 21:15.

Celeste A. Wallander, President and Chief Executive Officer of the US Russia Foundation, will moderate the discussion.

Read original article here.

Netherlands completely ratifies Armenia-EU agreement

February 14, 2020 – 16:38 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – On 12 February, the Netherlands notified the General Secretariat of the European Council and the Council of the EU about the completion of its internal procedures necessary for the ratification of the Armenia–EU agreement, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Naghdalyan said in a Facebook post on Friday, February 14.

The Dutch House of Representatives and Senate had ratified the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement in mid-December of 2019.

The deal will broaden and deepen the EU’s relationship with Armenia and provide for closer cooperation in economic, trade and political areas in addition to enhanced sectoral policies.

The CEPA has now been ratified by most of the 27 EU member states.

Read original article here.

Armenia’s President to present his theory of quantum politics at Munich Security Conference

President Armen Sarkissian will deliver a keynote address to the Munich Security Conference.

Presenting his theory of quantum politics, President Sarkissian will speak about the rapid developments in the world, the global risks, the new quantum technologies and systems, the quantum behavior of politics.

For the last five decades, the Munich Security Conference has been the world’s leading platform for discussion of international security policy.

Every year in February, it brings together heads of state and government, politicians, public figures, diplomats, reputable analysts and experts from around the world to discuss security issues, current and future challenges.

Read original article here.

The Netherlands completes ratification of Armenia-EU Agreement

On 12 February 2020, the Netherlands notified the General Secretariat of the European Council and the Council of the EU about the completion of its internal procedures necessary for the ratification of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.

Twenty-one EU member states – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Poland, Luxembourg, Denmark, Malta, Romania, United Kingdom, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Germany, Ireland, Croatia, Sweden, Slovenia and the Netherlands – have now informed the European Council and the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union of the completion of the internal procedures necessary for the ratification of the Agreement.

Belgium and France have also completed domestic procedures necessary for the ratification of the Agreement, but are yet to inform the EU Secretariat.

Read original article here.

Unilateral actions will not help solve the Karabakh issue, Armenian PM says

Unilateral actions cannot help solve the Karabakh issue, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

“Even if we assume any Armenian authority can take unilateral action, it will not solve the problem, but will rather deepen it. Azerbaijan likes to talk about territories, but it is important to understand that we are talking about security,” the Prime Minister said.

“The buffer zone Azerbaijan is talking about has been created, because peaceful settlements are being bombarded by Azerbaijan, forcing civilians, children to live in basements for years,” he stated.

The Prime Minister noted that Azerbaijan is a country where a man is being glorified for killing an Armenian.

“In 2004, NATO invites officers from Armenia and Azerbaijan to Budapest under a peacekeeping program. In Budapest, they attend joint seminars, and an Azerbaijani officer kills a sleeping Armenian officer. The Budapest court sentences him to life in prison. Some time later the Hungarian government decided to extradite the officer to Azerbaijan. Upon arrival, the President of Azerbaijan signs a decree on the release of the officer, who gets his entire salary paid, is given a flat, a military rank, and receives the encouragement of the mass media,” Pashinyan reminded.

“And when it comes to territory, we perceive it as security. And first of all, not the Republic of Armenia, but the Republic of Karabakh is not ready to compromise its own security, just as no country is ready to compromise its security. That is to say, the solution to this situation can only be linked to security guarantees that are not there. And they haven’t been. And their absence has created the current situation,” he added.

Referring to his statement “Karabakh is Armenia, full stop,” the Prime Minister said it has a very clear and specific explanation.

“We have said that Azerbaijan’s attack on Karabakh will be seen as an attack on the Republic of Armenia. The Republic of Armenia is the guarantor of the security of Karabakh. And this says everything,” he explained.

PM Pashinyan made it clear that “we have not seen any constructive step by Azerbaijan in the negotiation process over the past one and a half year.”

“On the other hand, I would like to appreciate the fact with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev we have managed to reach an unprecedented low level of tension since our first meeting in September 2018.

“And I hope that, as a result of constructive discussions, we will not only be able to maintain this relatively stable and calm situation, but also move forward with de jure settlement,” the Prime Minister concluded.

Read original article here.

Recognition of past atrocities vital for preventing identity-based crimes, Armenia’s UN Ambassador says

Armenia has been taking consistent measures to consolidate international efforts aimed at prevention of the crime of genocide, Armenia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Mher Margaryan said at the UN Security Council Open Debate on “Peacebuilding and sustaining peace: transitional justice in conflict and post‐conflict situations.”

“Regrettably, we still continue witnessing hate crimes and atrocities against ethnic and religious groups, state-led policy of hatred, racial and ethnic profiling, glorification and justification of past crimes and dehumanization of victims,” he said.

“The genocidal acts perpetrated against Christians, Yazidis and other communities by terrorist organizations committed in Syria and Iraq are stark reminders that denial of the crime and dehumanization of victims do not merely belong to history,” Armenia’s Permanent representative stated.

Mher Margaryan noted that the Armenian nation has gone through the horrors of genocide in the beginning of the 20th century and still continues to face the challenges of denial and justification of the past crimes.

Hence, he said, Armenia has been taking consistent measures to consolidate international efforts aimed at prevention of the crime of genocide.

“Justification of the Armenian genocide at the highest level by means of denigrating and insulting the dignity of the victims, qualifying it as “the most reasonable act” and manufacturing alternative historical narratives profoundly hampers the efforts to ensure the realization of the right to truth and non- recurrence,” Amb. Margaryan stated.

“Armenia is committed to supporting the efforts of the United Nations to promote transitional justice as an important element of the UN prevention agenda. Over the years we have initiated a number of Resolutions related to the prevention of genocide. Upon Armenia’s initiative the General Assembly designated 9 December as the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime,” he reminded.

“Recognition and condemnation of the past atrocities is vital for preventing identity-based crimes, protecting the universality of human rights and achieving genuine reconciliation and sustainable peace,” he concluded.

Read original article here.

Armenia, Germany keen to strengthen relations: Pashinyan, Merkel meet in Berlin

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.

Welcoming the visit of the Armenian Prime Minister, Mrs. Merkel said it provides an opportunity to discuss issues on the agenda of bilateral relations.

The Chancellor noted that her country’s government would continue to support the Armenian side in various ways to promote democratic reform effectively.

Prime Minister Pashinyan touched upon the economic developments in Armenia, noting that high growth rates were recorded in different sectors of the economy. The Prime Minister emphasized that the Government of Armenia is interested in expanding the German business and capital market presence in the Armenian market and inviting German companies to participate in different investment projects.

During the meeting the sides discussed various issues, including cooperation in the fields of industry, infrastructure, tourism, information technologies, education.

Prime Minister Pashinyan also referred to the constitutional referendum in Armenia on April 5 and its circumstances, noting that the Armenian government is going to invite international observers to observe the referendum.

Angela Merkel expressed support to the German government for judicial reforms in Armenia and highlighted the steps taken by the Armenian government to develop democratic institutions.

In a statement to the press prior to the meeting, Chancellor Merkel said she still fondly remembers the trip to Yerevan 2018.

“Since then we have actually had a very close exchange, and German-Armenian relations have also intensified,” she said.

“I was very happy that we recently signed contracts to set up a TUMO center in Germany. During my visit to Armenia, in Yerevan, I was very enthusiastic about this center, in which young people are taught IT skills and learn a lot. We will inaugurate the first German TUMO center in Berlin this autumn,” Merkel said.

She thanked Armenia for the participation in the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan.

PM Pashinyan said, in turn, that “Germany is a close partner of Armenia, and we feel the strength of this partnership in both the theoretical and practical areas. “

“Our connection to Germany is one of the bridges that connect Armenia with European culture and science. Today I can underline that our friendship is based on common values and that these common values serve as the basis for any cooperation. I would also like to state that we have common interests in various projects today. We are ready to do our best to strengthen these relationships,” the Prime Minister said.

Read original article here.

Armenia hails Syrian Parliament Resolution recognizing the Genocide

Armenia has highly appreciated the adoption of the Resolution on the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian people by the People’s Council of the Arab Republic of Syria.

“The genocide unleashed by the Young Turk government, a significant part of which took place in the territory of Syria under the Ottoman Empire at the time, forms part of the general historic memory of the Armenian and Syrian peoples,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The Syrian people, who witnessed the atrocities against the Armenian people, were among the first to extend a helping hand to the victims of the genocide. Thousands of survivors reclaimed their new homeland in Syria by forming one of the richest Armenian communities and contributing to the development of the country,” the statement continued.

The Foreign Ministry said “the resolution is a vivid testimony to the centuries-old friendship and mutual sympathy of the Armenian and Syrian peoples.

“It is a significant contribution to restoring historical justice and preventing genocides,” it concluded.

The Syrian legislative body voted unanimously today to pass a resolution recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide.

Read original article here.

Germany supportive of Armenia’s judicial reform – PM Pashinyan meets with Bundestag President

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with German Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble in Berlin on the sidelines of his working visit to Germany.

Welcoming the Armenian Premier to his country, the Bundestag President was pleased to state that the pledge made exactly a year ago was fulfilled: The Bundestag has ratified the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA). Wolfgang Schäuble expressed confidence that Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to Berlin will impart fresh impetus to the furtherance of Armenian-German relations.

Thankful for CEPA ratification, Prime Minister Pashinyan said it will facilitate the reform process in Armenia. “Armenia has recorded tangible progress in its international ratings as regards democracy. Our government sets another important goal in developing relationships with Germany. We are interested in your country’s experience as a long-established and well-organized parliamentary state, given the fact Armenia embraced the semi-presidential system of governance in 2018,” the Prime Minister said, highlighting the importance of German know-how from the perspective of building a more functional system of governance in our country.

Nikol Pashinyan underscored that his government’s ultimate goal is to ensure that democracy is irreversible in Armenia, supported by an independent and reliable judicial system. The Prime Minister gave details of the decision to hold a referendum on constitutional reforms this April 5. Nikol Pashinyan invited German Bundestag to send observers to monitor the upcoming referendum.

The Bundestag President voiced support for the judicial reform and the democratic process underway in our country. He advised that they are closely following Armenia’s domestic developments.

Taking the opportunity, the interlocutors touched upon the development of cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the European Union. Wolfgang Schäuble expressed hope that Armenia and Prime Minister Pashinyan personally will continue to promote interactions between the two Unions.

The Head of the Armenian Government stressed the need to look for new partnership formulas between the EAEU and the European Union, noting that the issue is being discussed within the EAEU.

Read original article here.

Syrian Parliament recognizes the Armenian Genocide

The Syrian Parliament voted unanimously today to adopt a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide, SANA reports.

The Parliament’s Secretary Rami Saleh was earlier quoted by Ahval News as saying that “the history of the Ottoman Empire is full of massacres of various components of the Armenian, Syrian peoples and others.”

The website quoted the head of the Council’s Arab and Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Committee, MP Boutros Morjana as saying: “There is no doubt that the massacre certainly occurred and there was a genocide of the Armenian, Assyrian and Syriac peoples. It is time to recognize this genocide.”

The resolution was presented by the Syria-Armenia parliamentary friendship group.

Read original article here.

Syrian Parliament to vote on a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide

The Syrian Parliament will vote today on a resolution on recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, the Parliament’s Secretary Rami Saleh has declared, Ahval News reports.

He has said the history of the Ottoman Empire is full of massacres of various components of, Armenians, Syrians and others.

The newspaper quoted the head of the Council’s Arab and Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Committee, MP Boutros Morjana as saying: “There is no doubt that the massacre certainly occurred and there was a genocide of the Armenian, Assyrian and Syriac peoples. It is time to recognize this genocide.”

The resolution has been presented by the Syria-Armenia parliamentary friendship group.

Today’s vote by the Syrian Parliament comes amid escalating tensions between Turkish and Syrian forces in Idlib governorate, eastern Syria.

Read original article here.

Azerbaijan "using Karabakh conflict to cover up its failure in democracy"

February 13, 2020 – 12:57 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Azerbaijan is trying to use the Nagorno Karabakh conflict as a cover-up for its failure in democracy, spokeswoman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry Anna Naghdalyan said Thursday, February 13.

Naghdalyan made the comments after Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement claiming that voters from Karabakh participated in recent parliamentary elections as well, while some newly elected parliamentarians were also elected representatives of Karabakh.

“On a number of occasions, we have stated that the establishment and enhancement of democratic societies in the region are in the interests of regional stability, development and prosperity,” Naghdalyan said.

“We are aware of the assessment of those elections by the international observers. As it was assessed by the preliminary report of the international observation mission and the heads of the observation mission, the elections were marred by systematic and gross violations.

The spokeswoman said Azerbaijan is once again trying to use the conflict as a cover-up for its failure in democracy and extremely low level of legitimacy of the elections.

“The false and empty claims of Azerbaijan pretending that representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh have been elected in those elections vividly illustrate Azerbaijan’s distorted perception of democracy,” the diplomat said.

“The people of Artsakh have never participated in the elections of Azerbaijan either now, or throughout the entire history of the Republic of Azerbaijan.”

Naghdalyan reminded that the people of Artsakh will exercise their right to vote in the upcoming nationwide elections to be held in the country on March 31 and elect their representatives – the President and the members of the National Assembly – through free expression of will.

Read original article here.

Tigran Avinyan Receives U.S. Ambassador

Thursday, 13 February 2020

Tigran Avinyan Receives U.S. Ambassador

On February 13, 2020, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan received U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy.

Noting that the Armenian-American multifaceted cooperation is actively developing, Tigran Avinyan appreciated the U.S. Government’s assistance to the reforms underway in Armenia.

Ambassador Tracy said they attach importance to working closely with the Armenian government in the context of a shared commitment to support the establishment of democratic institutions and the enhancement of general prosperity.

Reference was made to the Government’s reform agenda and the country’s long-term development vision. The ongoing and planned reforms in the fields of public administration, justice, business environment and digitization were discussed during the meeting. The parties explored ways of deepening cooperation in the IT sector, including AI, 5G technologies and cyber-security.

Read original article here.

People of Artsakh never participated in Azerbaijani elections – Armenian MFA

The people of Artsakh have never participated in the elections of Azerbaijan either now, or throughout the entire history of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Spokesperson for the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anna Naghdalyan has stated.

“The people of Artsakh will exercise their right to vote in the upcoming nationwide elections to be held in their Homeland on March 31, in which the people of Artsakh will elect their representatives – the President and the members of the National Assembly through free expression of will,” she added.

The comments come after the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry issued a statement, claiming that voters from Nagorno-Karabakh participated in the recent parliamentary elections highly criticized by international observers.

Naghdalyan reiterated Armenia’s stance that “establishment and enhancement of democratic societies in the region are in the interests of regional stability, development and prosperity.”

“Once again Azerbaijan is trying to use the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a cover up of its failure in democracy and extremely low level of legitimacy of the elections. The false and empty claims of Azerbaijan claiming that representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh have been elected in those elections vividly illustrate Azerbaijan’s distorted perception of democracy,” the Spokesperson stated.

Read original article here.

Today on Twitter

Here is a selection of some of the tweets about Armenia from some of the Twitter accounts we follow. Get in touch with us via Twitter if you want to be included in this Twitter list. We retweet occasionally.

Armenia @armenia·

12 Feb

No, not finished yet… Greco-Roman #wrestlers Karen #Aslanyan (67 kg) & Karapet #Chalyan (77 kg) ensured the presence of the Armenian flag on pedestal by taking the #bronze medals during #EuropeanChampionship. Congrats to our heroes! #wretslerome

Reply on Twitter 1227698917468405760Retweet on Twitter 12276989174684057607Like on Twitter 122769891746840576082Twitter 1227698917468405760

Retweet on TwitterEmbassy of Armenia to Austria/Slovakia Retweeted

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan@ZMnatsakanyan·

13 Feb

Useful dialogue w/ @GhadaFathiWaly of @UNODC. Discussed broad national reforms in anti-corruption, law enforcement & judicial systems. Reaffirmed that transnational level of crime and illicit trafficking requires robust intl coop, as no single nation can address challenges alone.

Reply on Twitter 1227991958460735490Retweet on Twitter 12279919584607354905Like on Twitter 122799195846073549021Twitter 1227991958460735490

Armenia Mission to UN@ArmeniaUN·

13 Feb

At the #UNSC open debate, PR of #Armeniastresses the importance of transitional justice for strengthening #RuleOfLaw, highlights the role of @theICTJ and legal analysis on #ArmenianGenocide. Condemnation of past atrocities is vital for upholding #HumanRights & #sustainablepeace

Reply on Twitter 1228103508332883968Retweet on Twitter 12281035083328839681Like on Twitter 12281035083328839686Twitter 1228103508332883968

JAMnews@JAMnewsCaucasus·

13 Feb

#Azerbaijanis accounted for a little less than a third of all citizens #deport|ed from #Georgia last year.

https://jam-news.net/azerbaijani-citizens-deported-from-georgia-more-often-than-any-other-nationality/

Reply on Twitter 1227955135617343489Retweet on Twitter 12279551356173434891Like on Twitter 12279551356173434891Twitter 1227955135617343489

Armenia at NATO@armmission_nato·

13 Feb

Delegation led by Deputy Defense Minister of #Armenia #GabrielBalayan attends @NATO #DefMin in #RSM format. Continued contribution of Armenia and other partners to peace and stability in #Afghanistan highly appreciated by #NATO Allies.

Reply on Twitter 1227978046524809217Retweet on Twitter 12279780465248092173Like on Twitter 12279780465248092178Twitter 1227978046524809217

Artsakh Parliament@Artsakh_Parl·

13 Feb

32 years ago, these days, the #Karabakhmovement began. With mass demonstration the people of #Artsakh demanded from the Soviet Union the withdrawal of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) from the #Azerbaijan SSR and its reunion with the Soviet #Armenia. #selfdetermination

Reply on Twitter 1227958323607220225Retweet on Twitter 12279583236072202251Like on Twitter 122795832360722022510Twitter 1227958323607220225

Retweet on TwitterArmenia Ombudsman Retweeted

Arman Tatoyan@atatoyan·

13 Feb

A productive meeting w/ #President of #Armenia, H.E. Armen Sarkissian today. We discussed our mutual cooperation as #constitutional institutions; projects of the Human Rights Defender (@OmbudsArmenia ); #humanrights issues; #reforms of the #Constitution & #judicial-#legal system.

Reply on Twitter 1227912992752316416Retweet on Twitter 12279129927523164161Like on Twitter 12279129927523164164Twitter 1227912992752316416

Retweet on TwitterUSC Armenian Studies Retweeted

Emil Sanamyan@emil_sanamyan·

12 Feb

I looked at composition of Nagorno Karabakh Republic’s first elected parliament (1991-95). Some things stood out: of 81 seats, 6 were set aside for NKR’s Azerbaijani minority (3 in Shushi, 1 in Khojali, 1 in Karadagli & 1 in Umudlu); they remained vacant. https://twitter.com/ArmenianStudies/status/1227282593516621824

USC Armenian Studies@ArmenianStudies

Leading up to #elections in #Karabakh scheduled for March 31, here is a look back at electing #Artsakh’s Parliament in 1991 by @emil_sanamyan for #FocusOnKarabakh https://armenian.usc.edu/electing-artsakhs-first-parliament-conditions-and-composition/

Reply on Twitter 1227452337255518209Retweet on Twitter 12274523372555182093Like on Twitter 122745233725551820918Twitter 1227452337255518209

ArtsakhPress Agency@ArtsakhPress·

13 Feb

More than 2 billion envisaged by the #housing #program for #construction works https://artsakhpress.am/eng/news/121129/more-than-2-billion-envisaged-by-the-housing-program-for-construction-works.html #Artsakh #NagornoKarabakh

Reply on Twitter 1227952040304922624Retweet on Twitter 1227952040304922624Like on Twitter 12279520403049226242Twitter 1227952040304922624

Artsakh MFA@mfankr·

13 Feb

On Feb 13, 1988 tens of thousands of people participated in first major demonstration in #Stepanakert, demanding reunification with #Armenia. Since then mass demonstrations were held in #Stepanakert, #Hadrut, #Martuni, #Askeran & #Yerevan. #Karabakh http://www.nkr.am/en/karabakh-national-liberation-movement

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#Politics Digests

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todaynewsstories · 6 years ago

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Lithuania renames square by Russian embassy for murdered Boris Nemtsov | News | DW

Boris Nemtsov square appeared in a Google Maps search for the first time on Friday, shortly after the green space with a little lake in front of the Russian Embassy in the Lithuanian capital had been renamed in honor of the political activist murdered in Moscow.

President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent at the time, Nemtsov was shot dead near the Kremlin in February 2015. It was the most high-profile political murder in Russia’s recent history. While two men are serving prison sentences, none of the instigators or organizers of the crime have been identified.

The tree-filled park by the Russian embassy in Vilnius has become Boris Nemtsov square

Speaking at the ceremony, Nemtsov’s daughter Zhanna Nemtsova thanked Lithuanian authorities for renaming the square.

Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Simasius said naming the square was “a sign of honor to all democrats of Russia” and half a million citizens of Moscow who took to the streets of the Russian capital to support Lithuania in its fight for independence in January 1991.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius called it a “truly meaningful gesture.”

Former government minister, regional governor and four-term member of parliament, Nemtsov was a regional lawmaker at the time of his death.

OSCE calls for investigation

At its parliamentary assembly in Berlin in July, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), of which Russia is a member, called on Russian authorities to “undertake a new, full and thorough investigation into the February 2015 assassination of Boris Nemtsov . . . including the vigorous prosecution of those who ordered or facilitated the crime, and to co-operate with the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in regard to their ongoing interest in this case.”

However, there has been no progress in bringing the organizers of the murder to justice.

Washington changed the name of a square by the Russian Embassy to Boris Nemtsov Plaza in February

Russia’s ambassador in Lithuania Alexander Udaltsov criticized the naming of the square saying it was “not right, to put it mildly.” He said Vilnius was “aping” Washington which opened Nemtsov Plaza in front of the Russian Embassy in February this year.

DW’s Katsiaryna Kryzhanouskaya and Irina Filatova contributed to this report.

jm/msh

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW’s editors send out a selection of the day’s hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.

The post Lithuania renames square by Russian embassy for murdered Boris Nemtsov | News | DW appeared first on Today News Stories.

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ourlocalnettle · 7 years ago

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Our local nettle also took part offering a workshop in this year’s OSCE Days Berlin. There we got in touch with many material and textile designers and enthusiasts, we extracted fibers with them together and they gladly shared their nettle stories for your story board.

#nettle #nettleplant #nettlesfortextiles #oscedays #workshop #Berlin

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allineednow · 7 years ago

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<p>Our music tech predictions for 2018: SoundCloud's survival, the Bitcoin boom and more modular madness</p>

What technological trends can listeners and artists anticipate in 2018? Scott Wilson stares into his crystal ball to discover how tech may change the way we have and make music in 2017, wondering what changes are coming into Spotify, whether SoundCloud will live and whether Eurorack equipment will continue to inspire musicians.

From the insidious rise of "fake news" to the rising prevalence of AI in our everyday lives, 2017 was actually a fairly terrifying year concerning technology's impact on society. In the music business, streaming continued to dominate the headlines, as SoundCloud fought to stay afloat and artists pushed back against the allegedly meagre royalties doled out to smaller artists and labels by firms like Spotify.

Technology's effect on music in 2017 wasn't all bad. For music-makers at least, the year brought a slew of innovative new programs and gadgets for production, while blockchain technology began to be taken seriously as a way of making sure musicians and everybody involved in the music production and distribution process get paid correctly and fairly.

So what technological developments and trends might 2018 hold for artists and listeners? We have made some predictions about what the next 12 months might bring into the music industry -- the good things and the bad.

SoundCloud will survive 2018, but its influence and usability will wane

2017 was a disastrous season for SoundCloud. The streaming company was forced to lay off 40 percent of its workforce and shut down offices in London and San Francisco to stay afloat after haemorrhaging millions of dollars in cash over the past few years. Hopes for a sale to a larger company such as Google or Spotify appear to have been dashed as well, leaving the business's long-term potential quite uncertain. And no, Chance the Rapper isn't going to be the one to save it.

Where does this leave the service, which is still a vital tool for established and emerging musicians? Well, it appears improbable that it will fold this season: the company secured $169.5 million in private investment in 2017, which ought to keep it afloat in the short term. However, with so much upheaval in the business, it is likely this money will be going towards keeping the lights on -- not developing the platform or innovating in any meaningful manner.

It is not clear what the successor to SoundCloud will be, or even if any platform that allows the same kind of simple music hosting will take its place. With artists earning less money than ever, especially from streaming services, anticipate artists and labels to make their own spaces not reliant on corporations, as LuckyMe did last year. In the short term though, services such as Bandcamp and YouTube will likely cement themselves as alternative destinations to SoundCloud for unsigned artists to upload and monetize their music.

Big changes at Spotify and beyond will affect its users

Spotify's year has got off to an uneven start. Yes, news emerged this week that the streaming giant will eventually list itself on the New York Stock Exchange at a public offering sometime before the end of March, but it also got hit by a $1.6 billion copyright suit by Wixen Music Publishing Inc, a company that collects royalties for songwriters including Tom Petty, Neil Young and the Doors.

Though going public will generate plenty of cash for the company, it will also imply its business practices come under more scrutiny from its investors and regulators. Spotify is growing, but so are its losses, and the platform should have a strategy to stop it losing money. Among the easiest ways it can do that would be to lose its free tier to convert its free listeners to paid subscribers -- or, at the very least, dramatically restrict what content could be listened on it. It actually offered some labels the opportunity to keep new albums off the free grade for two weeks last year, so it is reasonable to assume more restrictions are coming.

There's also the problem of the potential passing of net neutrality in the usa. Even though it is not yet a done deal with a legal battle being mounted, it is looking likely that services that use a good deal of bandwidth will be subject to higher usage fees from companies such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon. Giants like Google, Apple and Amazon have deep enough pockets to absorb this cost, but Spotify? Unless it's prepared to take on more debt or can strike a favorable deal, the customer may end up paying more for a monthly subscription.

Cryptocurrency hype will hit the music industry, and likely not in a good manner

If, like us, you were regretting not jumping on Bitcoin early enough to make any money out of it, you might be looking for the next cryptocurrency to invest in. For shady operators, that also means plenty of uninformed people to fleece out of their cash: current reports suggest cryptocurrency ponzi schemes and scams are rife, and that's not including those that will sink without a trace. Remember Coinye, the Kanye West-themed cryptocurrency?

There are signs that startups are trying to use cryptocurrency to 'disrupt' the music industry in questionable ways. Take Viberate by way of example, a "crowdsourced live music ecosystem and a blockchain-based marketplace" that uses its own cryptocurrency to let promoters book artists, artists sell product and fans purchase tickets. The issue is, you can only use the Viberate tokens to get services from the Viberate ecosystem rather than, y’know food, shelter or some of the things you need to live in an already struggling industry.

Artists such as Björk are using cryptocurrency in more conventional ways, allowing you to buy albums using Bitcoin. There is also Audiocoin, a token that can be used to purchase music directly from artists. In both cases though, this payment is only worth whatever the current real-world value of the currency is at the time. Bitcoin bubbles have burst before, and if you've sold all your music for highly volatile cryptocurrency you might well end up with nothing.

The blockchain technology that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are built on definitely has scope to help musicians get paid. But if you're looking for new ways to generate income from your music it is important not to confuse blockchains with cryptocurrencies. Is Ghostface Killah's CREAM token going to be useful for anything once we're bartering for the last bottle of irradiated water in the days following the impending nuclear apocalypse? Probably not.

The synth clone wars are just getting started

Among 2017's biggest (and strangest) stories was budget equipment company Behringer's continuing mission to clone pretty much every classic synth of the past 50 years. It began with a $299 Eurorack edition of Moog's beloved Model D before wider plans were revealed to earn affordable replicas of the ARP2600 and OSC OSCar. In December it 'unintentionally' leaked a whole range that covered obscure devices such as the EDP Wasp -- although Behringer later backtracked to claim these may never see the light of day.

Irrespective of the shady ethics of making cut-price clones of synths that are, in some cases, still on the shelves, Behringer is well within the law to recreate the insides of instruments that are long out of copyright. And while a great deal of people (including the widow of analog chip designer Doug Curtis) have been vocal in their criticism of Behringer's plans, there's many more who appear eager to get their hands on these instruments. However, its promised Behringer D, which went up for pre-order last June, is yet to be released. Its analog DeepMind 12 synth was in development for at least three years, so when the D will arrive is anyone's guess.

A working version of this Behringer D does exist though, and recent images from Behringer HQ suggests that it is hard at work on more equipment based on vintage instruments, so we'd expect more announcements before 2018 is out. It is not just Behringer though: last year we had Deckard's Dream, a clone of the Yamaha CS80 synth used by Vangelis on the Blade Runner soundtrack and an unofficial TR-808 module for Eurorack. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, so expect a lot more of this from many boutique businesses in 2018.

Music-making will become easier for beginners than ever

Nostalgia for antique equipment and analog hardware has retained Roland, Korg and a lot of other legacy companies well afloat over the past few years, but just as much money -- if not more -- has been spent on the devices that promise to make music-making easier for novices. Experts might turn their noses up at things like Ampify's Launchpad program or Roland's GO:KEYS for being oversimplified, but they probably make more money than a TB-303 replica since they have much wider appeal.

This has not been lost on the bigger players in the music tech sphere, that are investing serious money into ways that will get people making music, whatever their skill level. Ableton, by way of example, is an investor in Melodics, an program that promises to teach you finger drumming in just five minutes of practice a day. The business recently moved into teaching keyboard skills, which might be a game-changer for anyone that still mashes their MIDI keyboard when making tunes.

There is also Maschine manufacturer Native Instruments, which last year received a $50 million investment from a private equity company to "democratize music production," and help "achieve its vision of breaking down the barriers to music production for all music fans." Whether this money is going towards expanding into new markets, designing more innovative interfaces or even reducing the friction between hardware and software is uncertain, but it is apparent that the Berlin company has grand ambitions to place its products in the hands of as many people as possible, regardless of what their skill level.

Apple too seems to be expanding the appeal of its popular GarageBand program. In November 2017, it added a new sound library into the program with packs for future bass and reggaeton styles, confirming that it plans to release more "occasionally". It even includes its own iTunes-inspired 'storefront' in which you can browse them. A good deal of musicians hate the idea of sample packs, but you only need to look at the prevalence of Ampify's Launchpad and Blocs programs to see that there's a market for them. In 2018, there will almost surely be more of these simple entry points to music-making than ever.

Non-traditional MIDI controllers go mainstream

Keyboards continue to be the most common way to perform a synthesizer, but within the past few years they've been joined by a range of unusual interface devices that don't look much like instruments at all. The most notable example is ROLI's Blocks system, a music-making platform based around a squishy interfaces that allows you to both play notes and affect parameters such as pitch or timbre using gestures such as slide and glide.

Underlying many of these devices is a technology called MPE, or multi-dimensional polyphonic expression. It's a recent MIDI specification that allows users of devices such as ROLI's Blocks or Roger Linn's Linnstrument to perform compatible synthesizers with a whole lot more nuance than a conventional MIDI keyboard. The technology has not been widely adopted yet but support is growing: GarageBand, Bitwig Studio 2, Sonar and Max are some of the platforms supporting it.

Ableton and Native Instruments haven't yet pledged support for it (with the exception of NI's Reaktor Blocks software) but it definitely appears to be more than a passing fad. This past year, Pharrell Williams invested in ROLI, an endorsement that speaks volumes about how widely he believes the business's unusual but accessible musical devices can attract people who might not have much experience with music-making. ROLI Blocks are also being marketed from the Apple Store today, a company bet that this kind of device has a bright future.

Eurorack equipment will continue to boom

When Aphex Twin played at London's Field Day festival last summer, he brought his modular synth along for the ride. He's not the first artist to use a Eurorack system on point, but he's among the greatest, and the interest in the breakdown of what his rig included was huge, demonstrating that curiosity concerning the format is not limited to hardcore synth nerds.

On YouTube as well, Eurorack went from market content to mainstream concern. Among the platform's most popular music technology vloggers, Andrew Huang, revealed his love for the format at a popular video that's racked up more than half a million views so far. It also continues to be popular with live performers due to its versatility, even if it is not always the most practical thing to carry on a plane. It is so popular, we devoted a whole day to the format here at FACT.

While some people have theorized that Eurorack might be a passing fad, it is not looking that way at the beginning of 2018. If there are any trends we'd place money on, it is Eurorack modules inspired by classic equipment such as Behringer's Model D clone and artist collaborations in the vein of Mumdance and ALM Busy Circuits' MUM M8 and Tiptop Audio's Throbbing Gristle module, the TG ONE.

Scott Wilson is FACT's Make Music editor. Find him on Twitter.

Read next: After a tumultuous 2017, can SoundCloud survive the streaming wars?

The post Our music technology predictions for 2018: SoundCloud's survival, the Bitcoin boom and more modular madness appeared initially on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music. .

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fatimakhans12345 · 8 years ago

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Speech by Minister of State for Europe Michael Roth on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF)

-- Translation of advance text --

Almut Wieland-Karimi, Dr Kühne, Fellow members of the German Bundestag, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,

Fifteen years of the Center for International Peace Operations - what a wonderful reason to celebrate! I am saying that today not just as the Minister of State for Europe at the Federal Foreign Office but also as the Chairperson of the ZIF Supervisory Board - a position of which I am suitably proud.

Let us embark together on a journey through time - back to the year 2002 when ZIF was founded. I had a look what was dominating the headlines fifteen years ago today:

For example, “President Bush presents plan for more democracy in Middle East”.

Another headline read: “Al‑Qaida planning cyber attacks”.

And there were reports on a “historic decision”: “Russia is to become a full member of the G8”.

As you can see, even back then, we were experiencing turbulent times. Many current topics on the international agenda, from the Middle East conflict and Islamist terrorism to our relations with Russia, were also keeping us busy back then. We now have many new crisis hotspots. No matter where we turn in our world, we are seeing tragedies, war, disorder and violence in far too many places.

Over the last two decades, we have witnessed two parallel developments. On the one hand, we are living in a highly networked and ever more globalised world in which the connections between countries and people are becoming ever more close and dense. At the same time, we are seeing that this has in no respect made our world more united and peaceful. On the contrary, if anything. Even here at the heart of Europe, terrorism has hit home and our continent feels surrounded by tempestuous seas of insecurity and violence.

Furthermore, we have to learn that interventions from the outside, even if they are performed with the best of intentions, rarely bring about a reduction in violence. Peace is not something that can be dictated. It has to grow - and be bolstered, secured and, it is true, sometimes even be hard fought.

The former United Nations Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean‑Marie Guéhenno, coined a new term for this. He spoke of the “fog of peace”. The way I understand it is that the moral goal of wanting to create peace by definition goes hand in hand with insecurity, false assumptions and thwarted hopes. It is difficult to navigate this fog of peace even with the best of intentions.

Yet the difficulties on the road to lasting peace must not stop us from gearing our foreign policy energetically to this longing of humanity. Always aware that failing is a possibility. Working on and for peace is not a linear process. We must not expect war zones to become stable democracies overnight.

Ladies and gentlemen,

If ZIF didn’t exist, we would have to invent it today. After all, in this world full of crises and conflicts, civilian experts are needed more urgently than ever.

Your work and experience, colleagues, is extremely valuable. Day in, day out, you are helping to defuse crises or - even better - to prevent conflicts emerging in the first place. And you are doing so all over the world.

To give you some very concrete examples, our civilian experts are helping to build the rule of law in Kosovo, to demobilise the FARC guerilla in Colombia and to support the security forces in Mali who are fighting terrorism and organised crime. Without them, it would not be possible to implement negotiated peace agreements, such as those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Ukraine. You are also supporting the administrative side of the missions or are working in the Secretariat of the OSCE in Vienna or of the EU in Brussels.

Particularly in crisis areas such as eastern Ukraine or Afghanistan, our colleagues are performing excellent work in the most difficult of conditions. They are often not able to move about freely because of the tense security situation or they have to live in a staff compound or even on a military base. And they are often separated from their family and friends for long periods of time.

I would thus like to express my sincere thanks to all ZIF experts who have been involved in the last 15 years.

Your outstanding work for peace and understanding has become an unmistakeable hallmark of German foreign policy, and, colleagues, let me say that I am rather proud of this.

One thing is of particular importance to me. We do not want to express our appreciation merely with kind words. We want to improve how we support and protect our civilian experts in real life, too. And that is what the revised Secondment Act that we recently adopted in the Bundestag is meant to do.

What admittedly sounds somewhat technical and complex actually serves to make many people’s working lives easier. This law is a milestone in legal protection and social insurance for civilian personnel. We want to pay them a fair salary for their work and to ensure that they are covered as well as possible in their difficult and often dangerous missions.

I also voice my gratitude to my colleagues in all parliamentary groups in the German Bundestag for their support throughout the entire parliamentary procedure. Particularly in the run‑up to an election, that is not something we should take for granted. It shows the high esteem in which these civilian peace missions are held.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am not sure if any of you remember but in the late 1990s, when highly qualified civilian personnel were needed for an OSCE peace mission in Kosovo, the Federal Foreign Office had to recruit suitable experts more or less out of thin air. At the time, there was simply no central organisation like the ZIF we now have in Berlin.

The foundation of ZIF in 2002 under the SPD‑Green government marked the start of a process to professionalise German staffing policy for international peace operations. With its integrated “one‑stop shop” approach of recruitment, training and support for civilian personnel, ZIF has become a role model worldwide.

Every year, it recruits over 160 experts for international peace missions and over 300 election observers. We need people for this who are experts in their field, know the region in question and are also prepared to take on managerial positions in the missions.

Ladies and gentlemen,

When you started this work 15 years ago, ZIF was pretty much an avant-garde - what is more, also far beyond Germany’s borders. In this period, the importance of civilian missions has grown steadily. Thus, also in the future, we are going to need a highly capable Center for International Peace Operations - as part of forward-looking, responsible diplomacy.

While other countries are spending yet more money on armaments and planning to save money on diplomacy and development cooperation, let us take a different approach. Particularly now, we need to invest more in our civilian capabilities. We need some kind of “diplomatic surge”, a boost for diplomacy. In the Federal Foreign Office, we recently proposed that for every euro spent on defence, we should spend 1.50 euros on diplomacy, stabilisation, humanitarian assistance and mediation.

We are living in highly explosive times - literally. We have to presume that crisis is going to continue to be the norm in the years to come. But we mustn’t lose heart. On the contrary! We have to do what we can to prepare ourselves both in terms of policy and organisation. During this legislative term, we have set things moving in the right direction and we now must stick at it and keep moving forward.

Firstly, at the institutional level: since 2014, the Federal Foreign Office has had a separate Directorate-General dealing with crisis prevention, stabilisation, post‑conflict peacebuilding and humanitarian assistance. But new bureaucratic structures do not by definition create added value. But we managed to bring together expertise, (wo)manpower and new, fresh thinking in such a way that we are now able to work more effectively and react to crises more rapidly and more directly.

Secondly, at the financial level: in recent years we have considerably increased Federal Foreign Office funding for crisis management - also thanks to the support from the German Bundestag. But it is not just a matter of feeding more money into projects. We also need to gain traction on our diplomatic efforts. Here, too, we need to invest in brains and blueprints. After all, it is clear there can be no diplomatic solutions without diplomats.

Thirdly, in terms of personnel: we need to engage in the international organisations in very practical terms as these organisations work to promote peace in the interest of us all. That is why it was right for us to increase the number of German peacekeepers, civilian experts in the United Nations and German police officers in international support missions. We need to continue ambitiously along this path. If we want international organisations such as the United Nations to do substantially more to resolve conflicts, then we have to give them the support they need.

Fourthly, in terms of strategy: here too, we have taken an important step forward. The guidelines on preventing crises, managing conflicts, building peace adopted on 14 June sketch out the strategic framework for future Federal Government engagement in crises and conflicts. We are putting the primacy of politics at the heart of our engagement in crises around the world. Particularly when drawing up these guidelines, we made intensive efforts to seek dialogue - with civil society representatives and politicians, with academics and practitioners.

Let us continue this, not just when implementing the guidelines. After all, we need to pool all our knowledge, exchange experience and have a critical think about how to best navigate our way through the fog of peace.

After all, that is the very essence of forward-looking peace diplomacy. Such diplomacy acts with courage but does not claim ownership of the absolute truth. I am pleased therefore that with the Center for International Peace Operations we have an institution which combines critical reflection with operational clout. What is more, it has been doing so for 15 years!

Almut, fellow members of the German Bundestag, we are counting on you - but only from tomorrow, because today we want to celebrate together. I congratulate you most sincerely on your anniversary and looking to the future wish you sturdy support from the Government and Parliament, team spirit, a wealth of ideas, strength and trust. A more peaceful world is possible. Yes, also precisely because we have ZIF.

from UK & Germany http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Infoservice/Presse/Reden/2017/170627-StM_R_ZIF.html?nn=479796

#UK & Germany

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drubblernews-blog · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on http://drubbler.com/2017/01/31/avdeyevka-as-fig-leaf-why-poroshenko-escaped-from-merkel/

Avdeyevka as fig leaf: Why Poroshenko escaped from Merkel?

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Kiev, January 31, 2017, 19:06- REGNUM 30 January, the President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko undertook a working visit to Germany, during which he will hold meetings with business representatives GERMANY (received another invitation to participate in the Ukrainian privatisation), the new head of the German Foreign Ministry, as well as German Chancellor Angela Merkel . The result of the meeting with the last was the joint statement to the press, in which the Ukrainian President and the German Chancellor has once again underlined the indispensability of the execution of the Minsk accords to resolve the situation in Donbass.

we are very grateful to Germany as the leader of the European Union for a firm and principled position, policy support for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine. For a firm position regarding the formation of the Norman contribution format of Germany in Minsk signing agreements. I want to … hope that we can find enough arguments to Russia finally returned to the negotiating table and finally start implement the Minsk agreement », — stated, in particular, Poroshenko.

the ceasefire does not actually exist, again killing soldiers in turn, Merkel. I must say that the situation along the line of distinction is disturbing. According to the UN, this conflict up to this point about 10 thousand. people, and we must do everything we can, on the basis of the Minsk agreements to implement them, although it is not easy. We believe that the “Quartet” of Normandy, this Norman format is the right path, and we will comply with it, in spite of the obstacles that exist to achieve peace and political stability in Ukraine, as well as the territorial integrity of Ukraine. This road will not be simple .

the mention of the Minsk accords here. Indeed, the visit of Poroshenko took place against the background of another “aggravation of the truce in the Donbass, ongoing since the middle of last week. According to many testimonies of local residents, with 25 − 26 January fixed fire not only of the receiver, but also reactive artillery, and its intensity is unparalleled in the past year and a half.

towards the end of January 30 MEDIA reported that Poroshenko unexpectedly interrupted his visit to Germany. About told his Press Secretary Sviatoslav Tsegolko the President interrupted a visit to Germany because of shelling By Russian fighters, which led to the emergency, which borders the humanitarian catastrophe .

the official reason for this decision was the difficult situation in avdeyevka — a small village, part of the agglomeration of Donetsk. Territory the village is controlled by Mat. 30 January after damaging POWER LINES, feeding a town, stopped avdiivka by-product coke plant (and also provides city heat) and Donetsk station filter. Thus the city remained without electricity, heat and water in a sub-zero temperatures.

over the past six months several times already it [ЛЭП — Ред.] cut, the last time on December 7 and 12 January, when coke and stopped supplies in avdeyevka do, but then it wasn’t such a problem and no one from Germany not flying urgently “writes in his Facebook Donetsk resident, sociologist Dennis Seleznev.

Poroshenko interrupted diplomatic visit ahead of the Summit in Germany. An excuse is a humanitarian crisis in Mariupol (the city remained without electricity). Residents of Students will not lie: no light they are not the first time, not the second, and not even a tenth. In 2014-m a month and a half sitting. Poroshenko is generally not moved. And here is the same as visit to Germany canceled! Vzhuchili it there, apparently, in this German», — writes political journalist Yuri Tkachov .

in General, there is some discrepancy between the explanations of the servants Poroshenko and the real situation. But why then President of Ukraine left Germany?

escape Poroshenko from Berlin could be two explanations for this. The first version. If in Berlin Merkel supported Poroshenko and knew about his plan, it turns out that she came into confrontation with Trump and Putin, as well as solidarizovalas’ with American radicals-opponents of Trump. In this case, Berlin will not interfere with Kiev and become an accomplice. The second version. If Merkel did not know that Poroshenko ordered transition MAT on the offensive, it turns out that Poroshenko had escaped from Berlin — not to talk with Merkel or because she refused to talk to him, and went all-in, hoping that would allow him to improve foreign policy positions and distract the population of Ukraine from problems by switching their attention to the war and rusofobiju. Some of the explanations for the closer to reality, shows the reaction of the Berlin event “admits political observer Ivan Lizin in exclusive comments to IA REGNUM .

it should be noted that the expert is not alone in his observations. The world’s media in one voice write that Trump’s phone conversation with Putin, as well as talk about a possible lifting of the sanctions and cause a sudden deterioration of the situation in Donbass. In this spirit, expressed, inter alia, the Washington Post (United States), Financial Times (United Kingdom), Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), Agora Vox (France):

how can Ukraine, procrastinating and demonstrates bad faith in the implementation of the signed agreements by her. This tells us that the Ukrainian authorities do not want a peaceful solution to the conflict in the Donbass, and resumption of war “, said the French press.

Meanwhile in avdeyevka deployed points of heating and evacuation of the population from one of the areas.

this afternoon in Kiev, Poroshenko had held a meeting with heads of law enforcement agencies in “the sharp aggravation of the security situation in the area of the industrial zone in avdeyevka».

after the head of the regional State administration, Interior Minister and Chief of general staff informed me about the situation in avdeyevka, I, after reviewing all of the circumstances, decided to suspend the visit to personally coordinate our action plan “he said.

the President of Ukraine reported that instructed the Deputy Head of his Administration Constantine Eliseevu provide immediate imposition of an issue relating to the deterioration of the situation in the region, By the UN Security Council for its consideration.

today we expect relevant statements from our international partners. I would like to emphasize that in these circumstances, as Russian fighters behave — today, for the first time in many days against civilians and against our pieces were applied “Grads”, massive shelling of large-calibre artillery — if someone dares to talk about lifting sanctions, what else do I need to bring to justice the aggressor? », — stressed he.

he also stated that in connection with the deployment of fighting “used all the international instruments to ensure the ceasefire.” In particular, the Ukrainian side has asked the OSCE, gives guidance to Ukrainian representatives in the Joint Centre for coordination and monitoring of the ceasefire and stabilization of the line distinguishing the parties assigned the task today is to initiate negotiations in the tripartite composition of the contact group, informed about the worsening situation of the partners in the United States, the European Union and NATO.

according to official information, during the meeting addressed three key questions: the security situation in the area of exacerbation of hostilities; the humanitarian situation and the steps you can take to ensure the protection of civilians; the issue of providing international assistance and “prosecute Russian fighters.

If you notice an error in the text, highlight it and press Ctrl + Enter to send information to the editor.

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#Random News

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