Month: April 2021

U.S. officials say President Joe Biden is preparing to recognize the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.The officials, who spoke to several news agencies on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the sensitive topic, said the move could come Saturday, an annual day of commemoration for the victims.During his campaign for president last year, Biden said he would “support a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide and will make universal human rights a top priority.”“I expect we will have more to say about Remembrance Day on Saturday,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday when asked about Biden’s commitment. “But I don’t have anything to get ahead of that at this point in time.”In a letter Wednesday, a bipartisan group of 100 members of the U.S. House of Representatives urged Biden to become the first U.S. president to recognize the killings as genocide.“The shameful silence of the United States Government on the historic fact of the Armenian Genocide has gone on for too long, and it must end,” the lawmakers wrote. “We urge you to follow through on your commitments, and speak the truth.”Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said this week a move by Biden to recognize the killings as genocide would harm relations between the NATO allies.Historians say an estimated 1.5 million Armenians died at the hands of the Ottoman Empire — the predecessor to modern-day Turkey — between 1915 and 1923.Armenians say they were purposely targeted for extermination through starvation, forced labor, deportation, death marches, and outright massacres.Turkey denies a genocide or any deliberate plan to wipe out the Armenians. They say many of the victims were casualties of the war or murdered by Russians. Turkey also says the number of Armenians killed was far fewer than the usually accepted figure of 1.5 million.
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Police arrested nearly 1,500 people Wednesday during a day of demonstrations throughout Russia calling for freedom for imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny, whose health reportedly is in severe decline after three weeks of hunger striking, according to a group that monitors political detentions.The largest of the protests took place in Moscow, where thousands marched through the center city. Some of the people arrested were seized before the protests even began, including top Navalny associates in Moscow.Navalny’s team called for the unsanctioned demonstrations after weekend reports that his health is deteriorating and his life was in danger.”The situation with Alexey is indeed critical, and so we moved up the day of the mass protests,” Vladimir Ashurkov, a close Navalny ally and executive director of the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, told The Associated Press. “Alexey’s health has sharply deteriorated, and he is in a rather critical condition. Doctors are saying that judging by his test (results), he should be admitted into intensive care.”Navalny’s organization called for the Moscow protesters to assemble on Manezh Square, just outside the Kremlin walls, but police blocked it off. Instead, a large crowd gathered at the nearby Russian State Library and another lined Tverskaya Street, a main avenue that leads to the square. Both groups then moved through the streets.”How can you not come out if a person is being murdered — and not just him. There are so many political prisoners,” said Nina Skvortsova, a Moscow protester.In St. Petersburg, police blocked off Palace Square, the vast space outside the State Hermitage Museum, and protesters instead crowded along nearby Nevsky Prospekt.Turnout, arrest estimatesIt was unclear if the demonstrations matched the size and intensity of nationwide protests that broke out in January after Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent, was arrested. Turnout estimates varied widely: Moscow police said 6,000 people demonstrated in the capital, while an observer told Navalny’s YouTube channel that the crowd was about 60,000.The OVD-Info group, which monitors political arrests and provides legal advice, said at least 1,496 people were arrested in 82 cities — the largest tally being nearly 600 in St. Petersburg.Navalny’s team called the nationwide protests for the same day that Putin gave his annual state-of-the-nation address. In his speech, he denounced foreign governments’ alleged attempts to impose their will on Russia. Putin, who never publicly uses Navalny’s name, did not specify to whom the denunciation referred, but Western governments have been harshly critical of Navalny’s treatment and have called for his release.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 18 MB720p | 38 MB1080p | 74 MBOriginal | 91 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioIn Moscow, Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh and Lyubov Sobol, one of his most prominent associates, were detained by police in the morning.Yarmysh, who was put under house arrest after the January protests, was detained outside her apartment building when she went out during the one hour she is allowed to leave, said her lawyer, Veronika Polyakova. She was taken to a police station and charged with organizing an illegal gathering.Sobol was removed from a taxi by uniformed police, said her lawyer, Vladimir Voronin.OVD-Info reported that police searched the offices of Navalny’s organization in Yekaterinburg and detained a Navalny-affiliated journalist in Khabarovsk.In St. Petersburg, the State University of Aerospace Instrumentation posted a notice warning that students participating in unauthorized demonstrations could be expelled.The 44-year-old Navalny was arrested in January upon his return from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning he blames on the Kremlin. Russian officials have rejected the accusation.Soon after, a court found that Navalny’s long stay in Germany violated the terms of a suspended sentence he was handed for a 2014 embezzlement conviction and ordered him to serve 2 ½ years in prison.Hunger strikeNavalny began the hunger strike to protest prison officials’ refusal to let his doctors visit when he began experiencing severe back pain and a loss of feeling in his legs. The penitentiary service has said Navalny was getting all the medical help he needs.Navalny’s physician, Dr. Yaroslav Ashikhmin, said recently that test results he received from Navalny’s family showed sharply elevated levels of potassium, which can bring on cardiac arrest, and heightened creatinine levels that indicate impaired kidneys and that he “could die at any moment.”On Sunday, Navalny was transferred to a hospital in another prison and given a glucose drip. Prison officials rebuffed attempts by his doctors to visit him there.Russian authorities have escalated their crackdown on Navalny’s allies and supporters. The Moscow prosecutor’s office asked a court to brand Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his network of regional offices as extremist organizations.Human rights activists say such a move would paralyze the activities of the groups and expose their members and donors to prison sentences of up to 10 years.Navalny’s allies vowed to continue their work despite the pressure.”It is, of course, an element of escalation,” Ashurkov told the AP. “But I have to say we were able to regroup and organize our work despite the pressure before. I’m confident that now, too, we will find ways to work. … We have neither the intention nor the possibility to abandon what we’re doing.”
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The United States is warning the Russian government that it is responsible for whatever happens to opposition leader Alexey Navalny, whose condition is reportedly deteriorating while in custody. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has the story.
Camera: Natasha Mozgovaya and Ricardo Marquina Montañana 
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Over a year ago, when much of the world shuttered as the pandemic swept the globe, Mohammed al-Awas, 46, a Syrian refugee, was stranded with his wife and five children at a gas station in Turkey. Not far from the Greek border, some families were sheltered nearby in an area usually reserved for fixing cars, their personal belongings in black garbage bags piled up along the walls. Dozens of men, women and children, mostly refugees from Syria, loitered outside the station, not sure where to go next. Like the others, al-Awas wanted to cross the river to Greece. Turkey had declared the border open, so he had sold his furniture to make the journey. But Greece never opened its side of the border and many families were pushed back into Turkey, or were not able to cross at all. Mohammed al-Awas, 46, says while Turkey is safer than Syria, he has no way to support his family in Istanbul, April 17, 2021. (Heather Murdock/VOA)Asked if they were afraid of getting the coronavirus, most refugees at the gas station that day were blasé. They had survived war, abject poverty and life on the streets. The virus couldn’t be worse, they said. Moments later, police officers arrived, saying everyone would be boarding buses to Istanbul, whether they liked it or not. After a few weeks passed, al-Awas found himself in a small apartment in Istanbul, paid for by a charity. It was Ramadan and, as is common during the Islamic holy month, donors were eager to provide food and shelter for the poor. Still, al-Awas was despondent. “I stay up all night, every night, worrying about how to keep my children off the streets,” he said. Ramadan 2021 A year later, it is once again Ramadan, but humanitarian aid for refugees is scarcer than ever. Some aid workers say collections are down as much as 90% and the piecemeal food aid they have to distribute is not nearly enough to go around. “Last year, businesspeople were sending extra support for refugees because of the pandemic,” explained Aya Sultan, an aid worker. “But this year, when we called the same people, they said they had a terrible year economically.” Turkey hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world. These children are pictured in Istanbul, April 17, 2021. (Heather Murdock/VOA)In Istanbul, like in so many places, many businesses have failed, many shops have closed and people who once had more than enough face an uncertain future. Traveling to Europe to seek asylum has become more difficult and more dangerous, but al-Awas recently returned from another attempt, where after 14 days of walking through the forest, he injured his leg. When Greek authorities caught him, he got into their car without a word. He couldn’t go on. “We walked through the forests at night and drank water from rivers,” he said. “It was snowing and my feet were wet when I twisted my ankle and fell.” Weeks later, al-Awas still walks with a limp, but says he will keep going back until he either reaches Europe or finds a way to work and educate his children here in Turkey. At the moment, they cannot even enroll in online schooling, and he works sporadically, making barely enough for food. “I spent a lot of money to go but then I was forced to come back, broke,” he explained. “There is no work here, nothing to do. It is terrible.” Pushbacks In 2015, Greece was an entryway to Europe and refugees who reached Greek shores swiftly shuttled across the country en route to more prosperous countries, like Germany, which was publicly welcoming newcomers. In the same year, more than a million refugees made their way to Europe in a matter of months, and as their numbers swelled, borders closed. Now, Greece’s 50,000 refugees are likely to remain in the country, according to the International Rescue Committee. Many of the nearly 120,000 asylum-seekers in Greece are stuck in camps, sometimes for years, with applications pending. Meanwhile, many of Turkey’s nearly 4 million refugees are still trying to get into Greece, and they are often expelled shortly after their arrival. The expulsions are often violent and some families return beaten, without money, mobile phones and sometimes without even their shoes. The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, has expressed alarm over the pushbacks, and European Union officials have called for investigations into Greek breaches of international human rights laws. Greece staunchly denies any such breaches and defends its rights to secure its own borders, and the borders of Europe. At a press conference in Greece late last month, Ylva Johansson, the EU Home Affairs commissioner, partially blamed the continent’s “lack of a Europeanized migration policy” for the alleged abuses. “That means that member states at our external border have been under huge pressure … in the absence of a European solution,” she said. Marwa al-Awas, Mohammed’s wife, fears travel to Europe but sees no other way to educate her children, April 17, 2021. (Heather Murdock/VOA)Al-Awas, however, doesn’t plan to wait for a solution as he prepares once again to attempt to walk into Greece and make his way to northern Europe. When asked if they want their father to try again, his children grimaced and his eldest son barked, “No!” But his wife, Marwa, smiled sadly, and said it is their only hope for a sustainable future. “I am afraid, very afraid,” she explained. “But he won’t give up. He will make another attempt.” VOA’s Shadi Turk contributed to this report.
 
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United Nations human rights experts said Wednesday that jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s life is in “serious danger” and appealed to Moscow to allow Navalny to seek emergency medical treatment in another country.“We urge the Russian authorities to ensure Mr. Navalny has access to his own doctors and to allow him to be evacuated for urgent medical treatment abroad, as they did in August 2020,” the experts said in a statement.The 44-year-old Kremlin critic has been detained since January in a high security prison under conditions that may amount to torture, said the experts, who also contend he has been “denied access to adequate medical care.”The Kremlin did not immediately respond to the U.N. experts.Navalny began a hunger strike three weeks ago, about two months after his immediate January 17 arrest upon arrival in Moscow for alleged parole violations after returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning in Russia.Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said Navalny violated the probation terms of his suspended sentence from a 2014 money laundering conviction, which he denounced as politically motivated.Navalny has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering Russia’s security services to poison him, a charge the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.  Several European laboratories have confirmed that Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the former Soviet Union.A Russian court ruled earlier this year that Navalny must remain in jail, rejecting an appeal. The United States and other Western countries have strongly condemned Navalny’s arrest and demanded his unconditional release. Navalny’s jailing sparked very large protests across Russia shortly after his arrest, with tens of thousands of people demanding his release and chanting anti-Putin slogans.Police arrested scores of Navalny supporters who protested Wednesday across Russia, according to OVD-info, a Russian human rights monitoring group.The U.N. experts who issued the warning about Navalny’s health are Special Rapporteurs Irene Khan, Nils Melzer, Morris Tidball-Binz and Tlaleng Mofokeng. 
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Russian President Vladimir Putin is warning foreign rivals against provocation or testing the nation’s strength, insisting Russia’s response would be “asymmetric, fast, and tough.”The remarks came Wednesday during his annual state-of-the-nation speech, delivered to top officials and both houses of the Russian parliament, and Putin also said Russia is striving for good relations with other countries. He offered an invitation to nations to “discuss issues related to strategic weapons and ensuring global stability.”Putin went on to suggest that in some countries, however, it has become customary to “blame Russia for anything. Like it was some kind of sport.” He said Russia has been restrained and has not responded to this hostility or outright rudeness.He continued that if someone were to take Russia’s good intentions for indifference or weakness, though, “and is willing to burn or even blow up bridges, he should know that Russia’s response will be asymmetric, fast and tough.”Putin said, “I hope that no one will think of crossing the red line with Russia. And where this line will be, in every particular case, we will determine it ourselves.”The tough talk comes one week after the United States issued new economic and diplomatic sanctions against Russia for its efforts to interfere in the U.S. elections and its cyberattacks on U.S. companies and institutions.Much of the rest of Putin’s speech dealt with domestic issues, particularly its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to help its weak economy recover from the toll the virus has taken. 
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Closely followed in Britain, especially among the nation’s black population. And many are celebrating now that the former police offer Derek Chauvin has been found guilty of killing George Floyd.Amy Jordon is a London high school teacher who says she feels relieved by the verdict. She was one of the tens of thousands of people who took part in the British Black Lives Matter protests last summer.Jordon hopes this verdict will make the world see black people as equal.”The children that I teach, it shows them that their lives do matter and the police can’t just do whatever they want to them, with no consequences. I think it really will change the world and it will change how we see the police and what they can and can’t get away with it,” she said.Several British television news stations were offering live coverage of the verdict, while newspapers are headlining the verdict on their websites or front pages.The killing of George Floyd not only highlighted the issue of racism in the United States, but also in Britain where images of the toppling of a slave trader statue in the British city of Bristol went viral during a Black Lives Matter protest last June.Sofia Akel is a race equity specialist at the London Metropolitan University. She said that while the murder of George Floyd happened in the United States, it turned the lens of racial inequality on Britain.”In the UK, since 1990, over 100 black people have died during or following police contact. But zero police officers have been prosecuted for murder or manslaughter. And that’s despite several rulings of unlawful killing. And these are stats and real life stories of people that are known very well to the black communities in the UK,” she said.A general view of the exhibition ‘Never Forget Stephen Lawrence’, comprised of 29 flags installed in Brixton Village ahead of National Stephen Lawrence Day, in London, April 21, 2021.The British government set up a Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities after the Black Lives Matter protests. The Commission published its controversial report last month, concluding there is no institutional racism problem in the country.The report was rebuffed this week by a United Nations working group of human right experts, saying the document attempts to “normalize white supremacy.” Community activist Darrel Blake organizes black history tours in London. He said the Chauvin verdict alone doesn’t change the racism and discrimination black people experience.“I feel like true justice will come when black people are not seen as villains from the maternity ward, all the way down to the deathbed. That’s when we will get true justice,” he said.Britain just commemorated the 40th anniversary of the 1981 Brixton uprisings – long known to some as the Brixton riots – when people, most of them black, protested the racial inequality they faced at the time.Today, British black women are four times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than their non-black counterparts, according to recent studies in Britain. Black people are fifty percent more likely to be imprisoned than non-blacks, and the pandemic has left young black people in Britain unemployed in disproportionate numbers. 
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